Assistant Professor of Chemistry Victoria Moore co-authored a scientific paper published in "Science" online on Oct. 27.
The article, titled “Pretreatment Mitochondrial Priming Correlates with Clinical Response to Cytotoxic Chemotherapy,” examines how the clinical response of different types of cancer to chemotherapy drugs is related to the biochemical status of mitochondria within the cancer cells.
The study was done in conjunction with Anthony Letai, MD, PhD at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute which is part of Harvard Medical School, and included both clinical and research collaborators. The paper is the culmination of several years of research and represents a step toward understanding chemotherapy response of cancer cells. The research utilized BH3 profiling, a novel research tool to assess mitochondria, developed by Dr. Letai that Dr. Moore assisted in evaluating and improving during her postdoctoral work in Dr. Letai’s lab. A major implication of this research is that BH3 profiling might be useful in identifying new, more effective chemotherapy drugs.