Cancer Symposium Ignites Research by Encouraging Collaboration

The 5th annual Henry Ford + MSU Cancer Research Symposium recently brought together nearly 280 researchers to the MSU campus for what is becoming a very popular partnership event. This year’s theme, “Next-Gen Oncology: Charting the Future of Integrated Cancer Research” highlighted cutting-edge research and new discoveries from the Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University cancer communities.

“By sharing our latest findings and insights, we create opportunities to translate discovery into better care and improved outcomes for the people and communities we serve,” said Benjamin Movsas, M.D., Henry Ford + MSU Cancer Committee co-chair and Henry Ford Cancer medical director and radiation oncology chair.

The annual event began with a tour showcasing MSU’s pioneering research facilities. Participants had the opportunity to visit sites, such as the emerging Center for Imaging and Image-Guided Therapies (CIIGT) in the MSU Radiology building and the Transgenic and Genome Editing Facility and Stem Cell Core (TGEF). The TGEF is the only core in the nation to incorporate African grass rats into its studies. These rats are diurnal and have more biological similarities with humans than typical nocturnal rats, which ultimately helps researchers generate more relevant and translatable results.

Later in the day the Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences leaders discussed ways that the partnership’s collaborations amplify the impact that cancer researchers have beyond the lab. The cancer research leaders expanded on this topic and discussed how both institutions are uniting to create an environment that fosters scientific discovery.

“We are stronger together, as shown by our more than 35 NIH-funded principal investigators and the millions of dollars in research funding supporting their work,” said Jeff MacKeigan, Ph.D., Henry Ford + MSU Cancer Committee co-chair and MSU Office of Research and Innovation senior advisor. “This collective expertise allows us to advance breakthroughs and drive innovation across cancer research.”

Day two of the symposium built on the momentum of day one with a poster session and scientific presentations highlighting clinical trials, current cancer research and more. The winners of the 5th Annual Henry Ford + MSU Cancer Research Symposium poster abstracts were:

• Manish Moyal (MSU): Testing the Efficacy of Cabozantinib (XL-184) to Treat Glioblastoma (GBM)
• Qiong Zhang (Henry Ford): Lung Cancer Clusters and Air Pollution Exposure in Wayne County, Michigan: An Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model
• Aliye Saday Hashemi (Henry Ford): Epigenetic Liquid Biopsy Scores Capture Imaging Features in Glioma
• Sahn-ho Kim (Henry Ford): Synthetic lethal combination of AKT and Wee1 inhibitors for treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer

Additionally, the symposium included a special presentation from Kimberly Dodd, Ph.D., dean of the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine, the only veterinary college in Michigan. Dodd spoke on a “one health collaboration” for cancer, and ways that cancer shows shared biological disease mechanism across animals and humans.

Two special keynote speakers, David Piwnica-Worms, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Cancer Systems Imaging and Division of Diagnostic Imaging Chair at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; and David Craig, Ph.D., Department of Integrative Translational Sciences professor and chair City of Hope Duarte Cancer Center, were also featured.

Piwnica-Worms presented on immunological considerations of radioligand therapy, a treatment that delivers radiation directly to cancer cells using a targeted molecule. Craig spoke about using AI to combine different types of medical data and applying those insights to improve patient care in real clinical settings.

Looking ahead, to further encourage collaboration, the partnership continues to host the monthly Henry Ford + MSU Distinguished Cancer Research Lecture Series. The next lecture is Wednesday, December 17.

A special thanks to the Henry Ford + MSU Cancer Research Symposium Planning Committee and to Dr. Rybicki and Dr. Pyeon for their outstanding leadership in organizing this year’s symposium. To view more photos from the symposium, click here.