Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor and Director of the Brooklyn College Cancer Center (BCCC-CURE) Maria Contel was awarded a four-year, $664,640 grant from the National Institutes of Health to support ovarian cancer research. The grant will help advance the development of metal-based cancer chemotherapeutics for ovarian cancer with improved pharmacological and clinical profiles than drugs currently used. Ovarian cancer is the fifth in cancer mortality for women, and it is the deadliest for all types of gynecological cancers, affecting mainly postmenopausal women. In 80% of the cases, the diagnosis comes at stages III and IV with a 28% survival rate. The drugs that will be developed by the Contel team are based on compounds containing two biologically active metallic fragments (gold and platinum). First-generation compounds of this family have already demonstrated impressive potency against a panel of cancer cell lines, with an emphasis on 2D and 3D triple-negative breast cancer models. It is expected that synthetic variations of these compounds will result in chemotherapeutics and targeted therapeutics with high efficacy in ovarian cancer. Read more about this work in the Chemistry, A European Journal here. In other news, Contel was also awarded a $121,000 American Cancer Society Diversity in Cancer Research Internship IRG Supplement grant. Funds from the three-year program—which is a supplement to a larger institutional diversity grant awarded in 2023—will go toward summer internships at BCCC-CURE for undergraduate students who are typically underrepresented in the fields of cancer research. Six to eight full-time students will enjoy full-time summer mentored research experiences over 10 weeks, professional development programming throughout the summer and beyond, plus $5,000 stipends.
