Naples ’26: Back to Class | Cancer Research

One Health: Bringing AI and Machine Learning to Cancer Research

Nadia Lanman, research associate professor for the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research and the Department of Comparative Pathobiology, manager of Collaborative Core for Cancer Bioinformatics, and director of Computational Genomics Shared Resource

Andrew Mesecar, Robert W. Miller Director of the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research, distinguished professor of Biochemistry, Walther Professor of Cancer Structural Biology, and assistant vice president of research

Deborah Knapp, associate director of clinical comparative oncology at the PICR, Dolores L. McCall Professor and distinguished professor of comparative oncology in Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine, director of the Evan and Sue Ann Werling Comparative Oncology Research Center

For more than three decades, research on the striking similarities between invasive bladder cancer in dogs and humans has focused on separate aspects of the disease, such as risk factors, early detection, symptoms, treatment, and gene expression. Mesecar, Lanman, and Knapp are involved in a new project at Purdue that combines many types of data into a “digital twin” model of bladder cancer—one that may prove powerful enough to predict patient outcomes, starting with the probability of metastasis in both dogs and humans. By building two comprehensive models—one focused on canine data and one on human data—both will help inform each other, leading to discovery and innovation in cancer treatment. Methods employed by our Computational Genomics and Collaborative Core for Cancer Bioinformatics are bringing AI and machine learning techniques to cancer research in a uniquely Purdue way.

From Microbes to Medicines

Betsy Parkinson, PICR member and associate professor in Purdue’s Colleges of Science and Pharmacy

The soil-dwelling bacterium Streptomyces produces many natural products that humans use as medicines. Analysis of their DNA suggests these bacteria have the potential to produce more products, but they do not make them under standard laboratory conditions. Parkinson will share how to computationally predict these natural products from their genomes and develop methods to access products, especially those with interesting bioactivities.

Targeting Epigenetics for Cancer Therapy

Emily Dykhuizen, PICR member and professor of medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology in Purdue’s College of Pharmacy

Epigenetic regulation occurs through chromatin—the term used to describe how DNA is packaged and organized within the cell. Hundreds of proteins that control chromatin structure play key roles in driving cancers toward more aggressive, therapy-resistant states. Dykhuizen will share how her work focuses on identifying chromatin regulators in both cancer cells and the immune microenvironment that promote cancer progression and on developing strategies to target them.

Questions?

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