Discovering Curiosity: Building Mini-Organs to Fight Pancreatic Cancer with New Faculty Chang-il Hwang
When a healthy cell turns cancerous a cascade of events enables the cancer to spread throughout the body. But its origin lies within a single progenitor cell.
“What goes wrong with that particular cell?” asked Assistant Professor Chang-il Hwang, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. “Something happens at the molecular level. One DNA molecule, or one protein molecule changes.”
Those changes can have a butterfly effect that endangers the entire organism.
Hwang studies pancreatic cancer, one of deadliest cancers. While it only accounts for 3 percent of cancers nationwide, 91 percent of patients succumb to the illness within five years of diagnosis. The problem is compounded because pancreatic cancer isn’t detectable until its late stages, when it’s spread to other organs. Since the pancreas is situated deep in the abdomen, tumors often escape detection, and physical symptoms usually don’t manifest until it’s too late. Recently, Jeopardy host Alex Trebek announced that he was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer.