Chicago-Region Physical Sciences Oncology Center

05/22/2018

New article from Chicago Tribune, Racing against cancer: New efforts to save lives with early detection features CLP faculty member Vadim Backman's promising research. Backman employs a powerful new microscope to spot cancer at its earliest stage — before a tumor has developed. The Partial Wave Spectroscopic microscope detects changes in chromatin (the bundle of genetic material and protein that makes up chromosomes), alerting doctors to a possible malignancy. Backman working with Dr. Shohreh Shahabi to test this technology in ovarian cancer. Backman hopes this technology will eventually provide a simple, low-cost and effective method for detecting all cancers.

The five most challenging cancers to diagnose, what symptoms to look out for and what new tools are now available or being developed that aid detection and help save lives.

03/14/2018

Learn more about PSOC investigator Vadim Backman's revolutionary cancer screening technology. https://youtu.be/9v7V9E6H3kY

Northwestern biomedical engineering professor Vadim Backman discusses Partial Wave Spectroscopic (PWS) microscopy and the development of low-cost, patient-fr...

02/22/2018

We know that genes play a big role in cancer. Now we are learning how physical and chemical forces can affect the behavior of genes across the entire genome. A team of transdisciplinary scientists at CLP has developed a framework that maps the collective behavior of multiple genes in response to chromatin's physical nanoenvironment.
CLP scientists Vadim Backman, Igal Szleifer and Thomas O'Halloran combined the methods of chemistry, engineering, and computational science to create a physical regulatory framework based on the density of DNA-protein packets (chromatin) in the cell nucleus for modulating the expression of gene networks.
By regulating the physical nanoscale environment of the nucleus using salts and salt regulators they were able to tune changes in chromatin density to decrease gene activity and variations in gene activity in cancer cells. Adding these regulators of chromatin shape to common chemotherapeutics achieved nearly complete killing of cell culture models of cancer. This breakthrough heralds an important new mechanism for overcoming chemo resistance in cancer patients.
http://bit.ly/2HFIc8f
Macrogenomic engineering via modulation of the scaling of chromatin packing density. Almassalha LM, Bauer GM, O'Halloran TV, Mazar AP, Roy HK, Szleifer I, Backman V. et al. Nature Biomedical Engineering. DOI: 10.1038/s41551-017-0153-2

02/19/2018

Chicago Region Physical-Sciences Oncology Center welcomes applications of underserved college students to the summer program. http://bit.ly/2Cw6bDh

02/07/2018

A simple process seems to explain how massive genomes stay organized. But no one can agree on what powers it.

Leonid Mirny swivels in his office chair and grabs the power cord for his laptop. He practically bounces in his seat as he threads the cable through his fingers, creating a doughnut-sized loop. “It’s a dynamic process of motors constantly extruding loops!” says Mirny, a biophysicist here at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

Mirny’s excitement isn’t about keeping computer accessories orderly. Rather, he’s talking about a central organizing principle of the genome — how roughly 2 metres of DNA can be squeezed into nearly every cell of the human body without getting tangled up like last year’s Christmas lights.

Read more at

DNA’s secret weapon against knots and tangles February 7, 2018 A simple process seems to explain how massive genomes stay organized. But no one can agree on what powers it. Article originally published on Nature. Written by Elie Dolgin Image shown above DNA loops help to keep local regions of the ...

11/06/2017

New research published in Nature Biomedical Engineering from CR-PSOC investigators Vadim Backman, Igal Szleifer and Thomas O'Halloran.

Northwestern Engineering’s Vadim Backman has developed an effective new strategy for treating cancer, which has wiped out the disease to near completion in c...

11/02/2017

POSTPONED to 2018! November 9 | Robert A. Gatenby, MD| Evolutionary Dynamics in Cancer Biology and Therapy -

Department Chair in Radiology Co-Director Cancer Biology and Evolution Program Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida Thursday, November 9 | 4:00 PM

11/01/2017

November 9 at 4 pm| Pancoe Auditorium|Robert A. Gatenby, MD | Evolutionary Dynamics in Cancer Biology and Therapy -

Department Chair in Radiology Co-Director Cancer Biology and Evolution Program Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida Thursday, November 9 | 4:00 PM

04/05/2017

Have you heard about our free two-day symposium to be held on May 8 & 9? Over a dozen speakers will give lectures as we explore the relationship between the state & structure of nuclear chromatin and the mitochondrial reticulum.

To register and learn more, go to www.mitometalsmuc.eventbrite.com

Eventbrite - Discover Great Events or Create Your Own & Sell Tickets

01/24/2017

Monday, Feb. 13, 4-5 pm, Pancoe Auditorium
Lecture by Jason Cheng, MD, PhD, assistant professor and attending physician in the Section of Hematopathology at the University of Chicago.

Lecture title: Novel Chromatin Structure-based Therapeutics in MDS and AML: Targeting RNA/hnRNPK-mediated Chromatin Structure and BRD4/BET-mediated Drug Resistance

01/23/2017

Join us in Pancoe Auditorium on Monday, Feb. 6., 4-5 pm
Seminar - The Genetics and Biophysics of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT): Can Theory Help Cancer Biology?

Speaker: José Nelson Onuchic
Center for Theoretical Biological Physics and Departments of Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, and Biosciences
Rice University, Houston, Texas

10/12/2016

JOIN US! Thursday, October 13, 11:00 am
Abbott Auditorium, Pancoe

Tanmay Lele, PhD, University of Florida

Title: Dynamic Mechanical Integration Between the Nucleus and the Cell: Where Physics Meets Biology

Abstract: The nucleus has a distinctive shape, characteristic of its cell type and tissue in vivo. Nuclear shape affects chromatin compaction and architecture. Additionally, abnormalities in nuclear shape are a hallmark of many human diseases. Yet, how nuclear shapes are established and maintained in cells and tissues is not well-understood. I will describe the discovery of a new mechanism in which dynamic changes in cell shape generate mechanical stresses that shape the nucleus. I will explore how such stresses may control gene expression and cell function.