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Times Union

Federal funds will help develop devices used to treat advanced tumors

Associate professor of nanobiosciences Dr. Thomas Begley adjusts a chromatography tool in his laboratory at SUNY CNSE Friday Sept. 5, 2014, in Albany, NY. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union) Research scientist James Keith grows cancer cells in the nanobiosciences laboratory at SUNY CNSE Friday Sept. 5, 2014, in Albany, NY. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union) 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.

The balance is damaged in cancer cells, Begley said.

If scientists can understand that balance, then drugs can be developed to maintain the balance or exploit it to kill the cell, he said.

The grant covers a five-year period, with the potential for future funding afterward.

The team will collaborate with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, led by Prof. Peter Dedon.