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Federal funds will help develop devices used to treat advanced tumors

Albany

Local research intended to understand how cancer cells respond to their environment has received a $1.65 million boost from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The funding will support the work of Thomas Begley, associate professor of nanobioscience at the newly merged SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering/SUNY Institute of Technology.

It will support Begley and four graduate and post-doctoral researchers who are working on developing devices for monitoring and treating advanced tumors at his Fuller Road laboratory.

The specific research being funded involves understanding how cancer cells respond to oxygen.

Oxygenated enzymes direct the cells to do something — not unlike hitting the gas or brakes on a car, Begley said.

"From a cancer perspective, the gas is always on, and if you can put the brakes on, you can prevent cancer," he said.

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