EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) discovered a novel compound that effectively kills leukemia and lymphoma cancer cells, called Thiophene F-8.
The discovery was made by UTEP Biological Sciences Professor Dr. Renato Aguilar, and a team of researchers that included Ph.D. students at UTEP.
Dr. Aguilera explained the significance of the research.
“The idea is to identify, discover new drugs that will eventually end up in the clinic, but that have different activity against different targets of the cell so that you can combine them, put them together in combination therapy against cancer. So that the cancer cannot escape and become resistant,” he said.
Dr. Aguilera’s lab screens different drug compounds to determine if they can have strong activity against distinct cancer cells.
Thiophene F-8 was one of 1,300 different compounds that the research team at UTEP screened. They will continue testing it to determine how much more effective it can be, with the potential that pharmaceutical companies may launch further clinical research to determine its effectiveness on patients.
Dr. Aguilera is also the director of the Border Biomedical Research Center at UTEP, where the research was conducted. With the new discovery, he reflected on the progress they have made.
“What we have seen over the years is an increase in the productivity and the impact of our research, not only in the community but across the world. Most of us have collaborations that are international. I have collaborators all over the world that send us drugs to test here at UTEP, and then we pattern them together and we try to publish the work and eventually get it into the clinic,” Aguilera said.
One of the unique aspects about UTEP, said Aguilera, is that unlike larger universities, professors there have a greater opportunity to train students one on one, which helps fuel research like this and better the opportunities for students post-graduation.
Five Ph.D. students involved in the discovery of Thiophene F-8 are now working at different research laboratories across the nation. One of them, Mia Swain, is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center of El Paso (TTUHSC).
Dr. Aguilera said that the research they conduct is also important in developing the next generation of researchers, with the hope that the Borderland might be able to retain more of them.
“But if you can produce some here and have them stay here to help us produce better research, then it’s adding to the overall intellectual and workforce capacity that we are dying to have. Instead of importing, let’s make our own,” Aguilar said.
Swain explained that there are currently very limited opportunities for Ph.D.’s in the Borderland, and the openings are very competitive. Now at TTUHSC, she hopes to grow within the institution.
“I would very much like to stay in El Paso — to try to give back and be that professor that was there for me, like for example Dr. Aguilar. He was a really good mentor. And I wish that someday I can also be in his shoes, mentoring the young or the next generation of Ph.D.s,” Swain said.
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