A small dose of 1.56 µM, which is approximately equivalent to a daily dose of the
drug in a human cancer patients, increased the fruit flies» average life expectancy by 8 %.
Like humans, dogs» tumors are spontaneously occurring, rather than genetically created as they are in mice, so canine tumors may more accurately mimic the
situation in human cancer patients.
I have been especially interested in testing drugs that can inhibit MMPs in cancer models and in understanding why such drugs have not been
effective in human cancer patients.
Our primary experimental approach involves creation of engineered mouse strains with informative genetic mutations, characterizing these mice and their cells to elucidate molecular mechanisms underlying cancer phenotypes, and verifying these
mechanisms in human cancer patient specimens.