Aurelio Galli, Ph.D., D.Sc., vice chair of basic research for the UAB Department of Surgery, in collaboration with Angela Carter, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Surgical Oncology, has been awarded $10,000 from the O'Neal Cancer Center to support research aimed at improving treatment for glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer.
The award gives the research team access to the Cancer Center's shared facilities for a study titled "Rational Combination Therapy-Synthetic Biology for Exploitation of ROS Generation by Standard-of-Care Therapeutics for Glioblastoma." The work explores how synthetic biology can make existing chemotherapy and radiation more effective against tumor cells, an approach that could expand treatment options for a cancer whose survival rates have changed little in recent years.
The project centers on reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are unstable molecules that standard cancer therapies already generate inside cells to damage or destroy tumor tissue. Rather than relying on a single drug, Galli's team plans to engineer biological tools that harness the ROS to design smarter, more targeted treatment combinations.
"Standard therapies already produce these reactive molecules inside cancer cells. Our goal is to take something the tumor is already experiencing and turn it into a vulnerability we can exploit with precision," said Galli. “This support will allow us to generate critical proof-of-concept data that is required to secure funding for building this idea into a full research program.”
O’Neal’s shared resource vouchers are designed to give investigators access to specialized equipment and expertise without direct cost to their labs, helping move early-stage ideas toward the data needed for larger grants. The research team has six months to complete its experiments.
"This is a genuinely new way of thinking about glioblastoma treatment, and ideas this early often struggle to find support. The O'Neal Cancer Center's investment gives us the room to test something, explore practical applications, and see where it leads in the future of therapeutic care," said Carter.
About the O’Neal Cancer Center’s Shared Resource Vouchers
Shared Resource Vouchers are offered through the O'Neal Cancer Center's O'Neal Invests program and fund investigator access to the center's specialized research facilities. The program is designed to support experiments that could open a new direction in cancer research within an investigator's laboratory, giving faculty the specialized equipment and expertise needed to generate early data. Since its first funding cycle in the spring of 2020, the program has awarded 26 vouchers.