RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
| Irida Kastrati, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Cancer Biology ikastrati@luc.edu |
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Research synopsis
Our goal in the Kastrati lab is to close the racial disparity gap in breast cancer. Black women are 40% more likely to die from breast cancer compared to White counterparts, and this is readily apparent in our Chicago community. First, we want to understand the underlying biological factors contributing to this disparity. We are funded by NIH/NCI to study a new tumor suppressor in breast cancer - the loss of it disproportionately affects Black patients and may drive aggressive disease and poor patient outcome. Second, we are harnessing this knowledge to identify new and better targets against deadly breast cancers. We have teamed up with a medicinal chemist to develop new drug-like inhibitors, which we are testing in breast cancer models derived from Black patients.
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Steve Kregel, PhD |
Research synopsis
The Kregel lab’s goal is to study the mechanisms of prostate cancer development and therapeutic resistance, with a focus on racial disparities. In Chicago, black men die on average about a decade before their white counterparts, and black men are more likely to develop advanced prostate cancer. We are interested in how we can better target advanced prostate tumors, like the ones that are more likely to kill black patients, by harnessing the immune system by using newly FDA approved drugs that activate immune responses. We are studying how these therapies work together with the standard treatments that patients typically receive in hope that we can better treat advanced tumors that are the most fatal.
