About | Judith Tam ALK Lung Cancer Research Initiative
Leading the Charge in ALK+ NSCLC Research
VISION
Through the creation of a diverse multidisciplinary team and broad collaborations with many groups, we are focused on developing a deep understanding of the personalized molecular mechanisms of resistance and vulnerability of ALK driven NSCLC and to create new drugs. Our program aims to achieve rapid testing and validation of key discoveries to accelerate new treatment strategies that directly enhance the quality and length of life of patients affected by this aggressive cancer.
MISSION
A team science, collaborative program to advance precision medicine for patients with ALK+ NSCLC aimed to delay, prevent, or eliminate resistance and progression.
Develop and Validate
Develop and validate real-time drug testing platform ALK NSCLC to enable precision decisions longitudinally
Understand
Understand in-depth mechanisms of resistance to therapies (at multiple time points)
Determine
Determine the cell origin in ALK NSCLC, cell fate transformations, tumor evolution
Open
Open clinical trials with new drug(s) from our own labs and from companies, given the great area of unmet therapeutic need in resistant ALK NSCLC
With the recognition that transformative advances in medicine often arise at the convergence of multiple fields addressing a common problem, at the U-M, we assembled a team of cutting-edge investigators with expertise in cancer cell and molecular biology, normal tissue programming and architecture, medicinal chemistry with specific expertise on kinases, pharmacology, pathology, bioinformatics, surgery, and biomedical engineering.
OBJECTIVES
Our multidisciplinary approach converges into 4 overall program objectives:
1. Utility for patients now
The overarching specific purpose is to foster rapid adoption of key discoveries that directly enhance the quality and length of life of patients from three distinct interrelated angles.
- Advancing precision medicine by testing minimally cultured non-small cell lung cancer samples from patients to predict how patients’ tumors will respond to therapies
- Developing research models and improving understanding of the transformation of adenocarcinoma to small cell carcinoma and other progression events, in the setting of tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance, for early detection of changes and therapy adjustments.
- Pursuing new approaches to invent and test a new strategy for using combinations of drugs against ALK and create novel inhibitors against ALK, by targeting a portion of the ALK molecule not usually targeted by conventional therapies.
- Developing research models and improving understanding of the transformation of adenocarcinoma to small cell carcinoma and other progression events, in the setting of tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance, for early detection of changes and therapy adjustments.
2. Ameliorating disparities of access to precision medicine for ALK driven disease.
3. Training the next generation of ALK+ lung cancer researchers.
4. Establishing collaborative clinical trials with strong correlative science
Research Saves Lives!
Are you 18 or older and living with ALK+ lung cancer? You may qualify to participate in our innovative research.
Use the link below to complete the participant intake form or email us at [email protected].
Our Research is organized into three primary projects:
- Research Project 1: Advancing precision medicine by testing minimally cultured non-small cell lung cancer samples from patients to predict how patients' tumors will respond to therapies.
- Research Project 2: Developing research models and improving understanding of the cell of origin, transformation, and progression events, including transformation of adenocarcinoma to small cell carcinoma, in the setting of TKI resistance, for early detection of changes and therapy adjustments.
- Research Project 3: Pursuing new approaches to invent and test a new strategy for using combinations of drugs against ALK and create novel inhibitors against ALK, by targeting a portion of ALK molecule not usually targeted by conventional therapies.
With a couple of additional exploratory projects...
Developing Projects
- The ALK Immune Environment. Characterizing the ALK immune micro-environment during the course of oncogenesis and identifying key cells and interactions driving drug resistance.
- Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) Analysis. Isolating circulating tumor cells (CTC) for enrichment and expansion to monitor tumor mutation during a clinical treatment course.
Past Projects
- Identification of Novel ALK Inhibitors. Identify novel ligands and inhibitors of ALK as lead compounds for the development of new ALK-targeted therapies.
