TheoryLab

David Sabatini, MD, PhD, is an American Cancer Society Research Professor, a Member of the Whitehead Institute, and Professor of Biology at MIT. In 2020, he was co-recipient of the prestigious Sjöberg Prize—which promotes scientific research on cancer, health, and the environment—for discovering the mTOR protein and its role in controlling cell metabolism and growth.

1:55 – How his research lab has been impacted by the pandemic

3:04 – The history of how TOR was discovered, going back to a soil sample from Easter Island

5:25 – How mTOR is kind of like the general contractor for the cell (“Well, we need more proteins, we need more lipids, we need more mitochondria…”)

6:34 – If mTOR is the “general contractor,” then what is it building? And what are the signals that tell it to make things?

8:27 – “…80% of cancers have to find a way to turn on mTOR…”

14:34 – Why inhibiting mTOR to treat cancer isn’t such a straightforward proposition

18:50 – Research tools that he and his team have developed; for example, one of his students developed the first CRISPR libraries and some of the original CRISPR screening technologies

25:39 – On “molecular nutrition” and research into how diet affects you at the molecular level

27:24 – How ACS funding has impacted his work

30:12 – His message for cancer patients and caregivers

A healthy diet, weight control, and a physically active lifestyle are important for everybody, but especially for cancer survivors, who are at higher risk for recurrence as well as second malignancies, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and functional decline.

Nutrition scientist, Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, PhD, RD, has made significant advances designing and implementing home-based diet and exercise interventions for cancer survivors. Her team created a website, https://survivorshine.org/, that helps cancer survivors reach and maintain a healthy weight through diet and exercise. And she’s recruiting cancer survivors living in the Southeastern United States to participate in AMPLIFY, a research study that will help find out the benefits of a healthy eating and exercise program.

Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, PhD, RD, is an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor. She’s also Professor of Nutrition Sciences and Associate Director for Cancer Prevention and Control at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Her team is actively recruiting for a web-based clinical trial to improve diet & exercise health behaviors of cancer survivors: [email protected] or 1-833-535-7934 (https://amplifymyhealth.org/info).

2:22 - On how COVID-19 is affecting her work

3:33 – Her breakthrough research in the early 1990s into why women that received adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer gained weight

7:05 – On sarcopenic obesity and the challenges and risks it poses for cancer survivors

9:14 – How her team has carved out a niche delivering home-based and web-based interventions to cancer survivors (as opposed to asking them to come to a clinic)

11:36 – The RENEW trial, an intervention where participants were mailed personalized diet and exercise plans and received telephone counseling from a health coach

16:05 – SurvivorSHINE.org, a website her team developed where cancer survivors can receive “personalized information and tools to help them reach and maintain a healthy weight through healthy eating and exercise”

18:45 – On why it’s so important for interventions to be scalable and to meet people where they are – their home

21:49 – With people across the United States sheltering in place, what cancer survivors can do right now, from their homes, to positively impact their physical well-being

24:20 – How ACS funding has impacted her research

A healthy diet, weight control, and a physically active lifestyle are important for everybody, but especially for cancer survivors, who are at higher risk for recurrence as well as second malignancies, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and functional decline.

Nutrition scientist, Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, PhD, RD, has made significant advances designing and implementing home-based diet and exercise interventions for cancer survivors. Her team created a website, https://survivorshine.org/, that helps cancer survivors reach and maintain a healthy weight through diet and exercise. And she’s recruiting cancer survivors living in the Southeastern United States to participate in AMPLIFY, a research study that will help find out the benefits of a healthy eating and exercise program.

Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, PhD, RD, is an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor. She’s also Professor of Nutrition Sciences and Associate Director for Cancer Prevention and Control at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Her team is actively recruiting for a web-based clinical trial to improve diet & exercise health behaviors of cancer survivors: [email protected] or 1-833-535-7934 (https://amplifymyhealth.org/info).

2:22 - On how COVID-19 is affecting her work

3:33 – Her breakthrough research in the early 1990s into why women that received adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer gained weight

7:05 – On sarcopenic obesity and the challenges and risks it poses for cancer survivors

9:14 – How her team has carved out a niche delivering home-based and web-based interventions to cancer survivors (as opposed to asking them to come to a clinic)

11:36 – The RENEW trial, an intervention where participants were mailed personalized diet and exercise plans and received telephone counseling from a health coach

16:05 – SurvivorSHINE.org, a website her team developed where cancer survivors can receive “personalized information and tools to help them reach and maintain a healthy weight through healthy eating and exercise”

18:45 – On why it’s so important for interventions to be scalable and to meet people where they are – their home

21:49 – With people across the United States sheltering in place, what cancer survivors can do right now, from their homes, to positively impact their physical well-being

24:20 – How ACS funding has impacted her research

90% of cancer deaths are caused by metastasis.

What is metastasis? Why are metastatic cancer cells so hard to target? Are they different than the cancer cells in the primary tumor? What opportunities for treatment are there?

To answer these questions we spoke with former American Cancer Society grantee Karuna Ganesh, MD, PhD, a physician scientist and Assistant Member at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Dr. Ganesh is a GI medical oncologist who runs a lab that’s trying to understand what it is about metastatic cancer cells that make them so deadly and how we can target them.

1:20 – A simple, clear explanation of what metastasis is

2:31 – Why would cancer cells leave their neighbors and seek alternative housing? Moving is stressful; why not just stay put?

5:14 – On why the concept of “wound healing” is so important in cancer research

9:30 – How metastasis is wound healing gone wrong—cellular processes used in a good way for wound healing could be used in a bad way in metastasis

14:56 - Are the cancer cells that metastasize the ‘same’ in their new location as they were in their old one?

18:23 – What are targeted therapies?

20:14 – If cancer cells that ‘move’ and cancer cells that ‘stay’ are different, how might we use targeted therapies to treat metastatic disease?

21:21 – Why she’s so excited about the state of the field

23:11 – The impact of ACS funding on her career

24:49 – Her message for cancer patients and caregivers

90% of cancer deaths are caused by metastasis.

What is metastasis? Why are metastatic cancer cells so hard to target? Are they different than the cancer cells in the primary tumor? What opportunities for treatment are there?

To answer these questions we spoke with former American Cancer Society grantee Karuna Ganesh, MD, PhD, a physician scientist and Assistant Member at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Dr. Ganesh is a GI medical oncologist who runs a lab that’s trying to understand what it is about metastatic cancer cells that make them so deadly and how we can target them.

1:20 – A simple, clear explanation of what metastasis is

2:31 – Why would cancer cells leave their neighbors and seek alternative housing? Moving is stressful; why not just stay put?

5:14 – On why the concept of “wound healing” is so important in cancer research

9:30 – How metastasis is wound healing gone wrong—cellular processes used in a good way for wound healing could be used in a bad way in metastasis

14:56 - Are the cancer cells that metastasize the ‘same’ in their new location as they were in their old one?

18:23 – What are targeted therapies?

20:14 – If cancer cells that ‘move’ and cancer cells that ‘stay’ are different, how might we use targeted therapies to treat metastatic disease?

21:21 – Why she’s so excited about the state of the field

23:11 – The impact of ACS funding on her career

24:49 – Her message for cancer patients and caregivers

Working with community partners largely in faith-based communities, Cheryl Knott, PhD, and Nate Woodard are trying to increase the early detection of breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer.

With the support of American Cancer Society funding, their team trains church members to become community health advisers who deliver cancer early detection workshops in African American Churches.

Cheryl L. Knott, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health in the University of Maryland School of Public Health. Nate Woodard is a doctoral student and graduate research assistant in Dr. Knott’s lab.

3:52 – The Community Health Awareness, Messaging and Prevention (CHAMP) program

6:07 – The role played by African American churches in cancer health promotion

8:35 – On training church members to serve as community health advisors and present evidence-based cancer educational workshops

11:34 – The impact of these workshops

13:51 – The upside and downside of virtual training to compensate for the impossibility of face-to-face workshops during the pandemic

20:15 – The challenge of scalability, given the importance of building relationships at a local level

22:24 – How to weigh cancer prevention needs and recommendations during a pandemic

28:32 – Their message for cancer patients and caregivers

Working with community partners largely in faith-based communities, Cheryl Knott, PhD, and Nate Woodard are trying to increase the early detection of breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer.

With the support of American Cancer Society funding, their team trains church members to become community health advisers who deliver cancer early detection workshops in African American Churches.

Cheryl L. Knott, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health in the University of Maryland School of Public Health. Nate Woodard is a doctoral student and graduate research assistant in Dr. Knott’s lab.

3:52 – The Community Health Awareness, Messaging and Prevention (CHAMP) program

6:07 – The role played by African American churches in cancer health promotion

8:35 – On training church members to serve as community health advisors and present evidence-based cancer educational workshops

11:34 – The impact of these workshops

13:51 – The upside and downside of virtual training to compensate for the impossibility of face-to-face workshops during the pandemic

20:15 – The challenge of scalability, given the importance of building relationships at a local level

22:24 – How to weigh cancer prevention needs and recommendations during a pandemic

28:32 – Their message for cancer patients and caregivers

Cancer hasn’t stopped during this pandemic and neither has the National Cancer Institute or American Cancer Society.

Ned Sharpless, MD, director of the National Cancer Institute, joined the TheoryLab podcast to talk about how we can sustain research momentum during the pandemic, what new research opportunities have arisen, and how clinical trials have been impacted.

2:57 – How his job has changed as a result of the coronavirus, and new tasks taken on by the NCI

5:09 – How we can sustain research momentum in the fight against cancer during this pandemic

8:57 – On why data sharing among scientists, always an NCI priority, has become even more important

11:02 – Several interesting cancer research opportunities that have arisen as a result of COVID-19

14:23 – How the pandemic has impacted clinical trials for cancer patients

19:48 – A message he’d like to share with cancer patients and their loved ones

Cancer hasn’t stopped during this pandemic and neither has the National Cancer Institute or American Cancer Society.

Ned Sharpless, MD, director of the National Cancer Institute, joined the TheoryLab podcast to talk about how we can sustain research momentum during the pandemic, what new research opportunities have arisen, and how clinical trials have been impacted.

2:57 – How his job has changed as a result of the coronavirus, and new tasks taken on by the NCI

5:09 – How we can sustain research momentum in the fight against cancer during this pandemic

8:57 – On why data sharing among scientists, always an NCI priority, has become even more important

11:02 – Several interesting cancer research opportunities that have arisen as a result of COVID-19

14:23 – How the pandemic has impacted clinical trials for cancer patients

19:48 – A message he’d like to share with cancer patients and their loved ones

What do we know about how tobacco use affects risk and outcomes for coronavirus patients? Jeff Drope, PhD—the American Cancer Society’s Scientific Vice President of Economic and Health Policy Research—explains what we know, what we don’t know, and what we recommend. (2:10)

Then Dr. Drope takes us through a fascinating look at how tobacco farming impacts the developing world. How is global tobacco farming changing? What is daily life like for the tobacco growers in developing countries? How does the tobacco industry incentivize farmers and governments, and what other options do the latter have? (9:25)

Finally, Alex Liber (Senior Scientist on the Society’s Economic and Health Policy Research team) joins us to describe his new paper showing that JUUL sales recovered within weeks following a dip after the company withdrew some flavored products from stores, eventually surpassing sales from before the change as consumption shifted to the menthol/mint and tobacco flavors that remained on shelves. (41:12)