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Contechtual Bioengineering Lab

Why Your Support Matters

This year, a multitude of factors have resulted in billions of dollars less being distributed for research compared with last year. Many of these disruptions are ongoing and new challenges continue to emerge. The impact extends beyond unspent funds that were appropriated by congress for research. Each dollar that fails to reach research labs is a clinical trial not launched, a fundamental experiment not performed, a business to commercialize discoveries not started, a future scientist not trained, a trained scientist's career disrupted, and a step forward in scientific progress delayed. 

You can read more about challenges associated with federal research dollars here.   

An Example of What Your Donation Will Support

Our lab has developed a new way to grow highly treatment-resistant, metastatic breast and pancreatic cancer cells outside the body while preserving the very traits that make them so dangerous. Using this breakthrough model, we discovered a drug-like molecule that targets a protein cancer cells switch on only when they begin to spread. In our studies, this molecule not only stops the cells from spreading—it also makes them responsive to therapies they had previously resisted.

The lab member who led this work is now launching a startup to turn this discovery into a real treatment. But just as this effort is gaining momentum, key federal programs that fund early-stage translation of discoveries from the bench to the bedside (SBIR and STTR) have been frozen. Philanthropic support is now critical to keep progress on this discovery moving forward.

You can read more about ongoing SBIR/STTR challenges here.

You can read more about this research here.