PACR Projects

Sang-Rok Lee, NMSU
David Hockenberry, Fred Hutch

While more than half of cancer patients suffer from cancer cachexia, characterized by unexplained weight loss accompanied with substantial muscle wasting leading to impaired qualify of life and lower survival rate, most clinical attempts to prevent or relieve cachexia have been only marginally successful. Researchers plan to utilize a mouse model to determine the clinical efficacy of different types of exercise countermeasures on cancer cachexia and tumor progression.

Ivette Guzman, NMSU
Lois Stanford, NMSU
Heather Greenlee, Fred Hutch
Johanna Lampe, Fred Hutch

It is well established that phytonutrient-rich foods are cancer preventive and that diets high in phytochemicals such as carotenoids, tocopherols, and chlorophylls are associated with decreased cancer risk and recurrence. Researchers will establish a new “kitchen to lab to table” model to collaborate with Hispanic/Latino communities in southern New Mexico with high cancer health disparities to identify culturally-appropriate methods to improve diet quality. Study results will be used to develop evidence-based methods to inform culinary practices to disseminate to communities, and to design community-based dietary interventions to improve the health of vulnerable communities.

Teri Orr, NMSU
Harmit Malik, Fred Hutch

This project will investigate dramatic variation in bat reproductive strategies including their unique reproductive pauses during gestation. Researchers seek to uncover novel strategies bats employ to accomplish reproductive success despite dramatic pauses during developmental stages that have profound health consequences in humans. Data from this work will allow researchers to describe gene regulation at the placenta to elucidate novel genetic pathways and mechanisms that have parallels in cancer biology. In doing so, this study will further establish bats as an unappreciated model for studying cell regulation with many parallels to human physiology relevant to infertility, pregnancy complications, and cancer biology.

Tamara Stimatze, NMSU
Jaimee Heffner, Fred Hutch

Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) adults experience stress in many communities, which can be compounded by race/ethnicity. That stress may lead to SGM individuals more commonly taking up smoking, putting this marginalized population at higher risk of tobacco-related disease and death, including cancer. Researchers aim to evaluate SGM tobacco use from a social ecological framework, examine the intersectional influence of SGM and Latinx identity on tobacco use among adults in New Mexico, and evaluate cessation experiences and preferences in this population. This project will generate pilot data needed to support the development and evaluation of a culturally targeted tobacco cessation intervention for SGM adults in the state of New Mexico.

Samantha Carlisle, NMSU
Patrick Trainor, NMSU
Lucas Sullivan, Fred Hutch

This project aims to develop statistical methodology (with a user-friendly interface) for Stable Isotope Resolved Metabolomics and will have significant impact on experimentation designed to illuminate the complex flux and transformation of energetic precursors in cancer cell metabolism. Further, the propagation of statistical frameworks that minimize false discoveries will increase the reproducibility and validity of cancer biology experiments. Finally, the datasets generated will demonstrate the relationship between impairment of mitochondria and aspartate metabolism in cancer cells, potentially uncovering novel therapeutic targets for cancer therapy.

Eric Holland, Fred Hutch
Jianjun Paul Tian, NMSU

This project combined mathematical modeling and biological experiments to study the collective dynamics of glioma growth. Researchers developed and tested mathematical models for interaction dynamics of neural precursors and glioma cells, and for interaction dynamics of immune cells and glioma cells. 

Charlotte Gard, NMSU
Ruth Etzioni, Fred Hutch

NMSU investigators with expertise in risk prediction partnered with Fred Hutch leaders in cancer modeling to develop an analytic approach to de-bias risk prediction models using data from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC). Researchers plan to decouple the patterns of screening/biopsy from the underlying disease process via a combination of statistical and simulation modeling using data from the BCSC.

Mary Alice Scott, NMSU
Ivan de la Rosa, NMSU
Rachel Ceballos, Fred Hutch

A major gap exists between recommendations for social determinants of health (SDH) screening tools and knowledge about how to implement these tools in a clinical setting. Researchers are gathering the formative data needed to develop an educational intervention for medical providers, using multiple methods to ensure high scientific rigor.

Kevin Lombard, NMSU
Shirley Beresford, Fred Hutch
India Ornelas, Fred Hutch

We have a long standing collaboration with the Navajo Nation developing and evaluating interventions focused on gardening and healthy eating. Previous projects highlighted the importance of encouraging healthy eating habits early in life. Our gardening and healthy eating elementary school curriculum, a culturally appropriate strategy for improving healthy eating in this population, was well received in our pilot project. In our group randomized controlled trial, we are evaluating the success in increasing healthy eating choices of our integrated curriculum and school-based garden intervention, among Navajo 3rd and 4th grade students attending elementary schools in two areas on the Navajo Nation.

Rebecca Palacios, NMSU
Frances Lewis, UW/Fred Hutch

This study tests the short-term efficacy of Conexiones, a culturally-adapted intervention designed to help recently diagnosed mothers gain the tools they need to help their children and family adjust to their mother’s cancer diagnosis. Study results will be essential as a next step in testing the Conexiones program with other Hispanic subgroups in a larger trial, and in readying the program for wider dissemination to provider and non-profit organizations serving Hispanic parents with cancer.

Patrick Trainor, NMSU
Lucas Sullivan, Fred Hutch

This study proposes a new statistical framework  that will address concerns of false conclusions and multiplicity when analyzing Stable Isotope Resolved Metabolomic experiments.

Shirley Beresford, Fred Hutch
India Ornelas, UW/Fred Hutch
Kevin Lombard, NMSU

We developed community gardens and provided culturally-appropriate workshops for Navajo adults with technical horticultural support, integrating Navajo culture and traditional practices. The gardens were attached to an elementary school, a chapter house and a boys and girls club on the Navajo Nation. The adults associated with those places completed surveys to allow assessments pre- and post-intervention. The work improved the capacity of NMSU to conduct cancer prevention research and increased the attention at Fred Hutch to cancer-related health disparities research.

Chris Kemp, Fred Hutch
Amanda Ashley, NMSU

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), a clinical subtype seen disproportionately in African American and Latina women, is characterized by higher recurrence and lower overall survival following doxorubicin treatment. Researchers identified the specific cancer genes to target to sensitize breast tumors to doxorubicin.

Chris Li, Fred Hutch
Peggy Porter, Fred Hutch
Ryan Ashley, NMSU

The biological mechanisms underlying the relationship between progestin use and lobular breast cancer risk are largely unknown. In this study we evaluated the influence of novel membrane-associated steroid receptors on breast cancer progression to identify new prevention strategies and potential therapeutic targets.

Roger Brent, Fred Hutch
Jessica Houston, NMSU

Drs. Houston and Brent extended work using fluorescent lifetime methods to quantify normal and aberrant cell signaling. Combination of hardware developed at NMSU and fluorescent proteins developed at Fred Hutch demonstrated an ability to isolate cell subpopulations.

Chris Kemp, Fred Hutch
Amanda Ashley, NMSU

There is a lack of targeted therapies for drug resistant, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), a particularly lethal form of cancer. Using tumor cells derived directly from metastatic cancers, researchers identified novel gene targets which could be inhibited by drugs for therapeutic benefit. 

Shirley Beresford, Fred Hutch
India Ornelas, UW
Kevin Lombard, NMSU

Building on our previous work, we expanded our collaboration to include faculty and students in an elementary school in an effort to reach Navajo children. During the first year, researchers helped plant and maintain a school garden and developed a school garden and healthy eating curriculum with dietary assessment protocols. In the second year of the program, the full intervention was implemented, including a year-long curriculum and quarterly community gardening activities at the school. Changes in gardening behaviors and healthy eating choices in both parents and children were estimated. The school garden provided a highly visible demonstration plot for the general community.

Frances Lewis, UW/Fred Hutch
Elizabeth Trice Loggers, SCCA/Fred Hutch
Rebecca Palacios, NMSU

Researchers conducted the first phase of a program designed to test the short-term efficacy of a parenting education program for Hispanic women diagnosed with breast cancer while raising children. This intervention is a culturally-adapted version of the Enhancing Connections program, a randomized clinical trial originally performed with primarily non-Hispanic white mothers.