Alicja Copik and Debbie Altomare each received $100,000 from the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation (FBCF), a group focused on supporting innovative research that will create new and better ways to diagnose, treat and perhaps cure the disease.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, dedicated to promoting awareness, screening and prevention of the disease.

Annette Khaled, who leads the College of Medicine �鶹��Ʒ S�s Cancer Research Division, noted that UCF competed with older, larger programs such as the University of Miami, the Moffitt Cancer Center and the University of Florida to earn the funding. Khaled received UCF �鶹��Ʒ S�s first FBCF grant in 2012 and since then, seven College of Medicine faculty researchers have earned funding totaling almost $1 million. This is the first year two College of Medicine cancer researchers have earned the state cancer support in the same year.

�鶹��Ʒ S�This shows we have tremendous intellectual capital in cancer research, �鶹��Ʒ S� Khaled says. �鶹��Ʒ S�FBCF is looking for new, innovative ideas in fighting breast cancer and they are supporting UCF. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Copik focuses her research on better arming the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s natural killer (NK) cells to wipe out cancer. NK cells are the first line of defense in warding off pathogens, such as viruses. Through genetic engineering and nanoparticle technology, Copik has developed NK cells that are better at recognizing and killing cancer cells. Such therapies are much easier on patients. NK cells can do their work without the debilitating impact that comes with current cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation. And these energized NK cells can be donated to cancer patients from complete strangers without a risk of rejection.

The FBCF grant will help Copik refine her technologies to specifically fight breast cancer. She will also study how the most recent and still experimental treatment strategies against metastatic breast cancer may affect patients �鶹��Ʒ S� own NK cells. Because NK cells clear any residual tumor cells in the body, it �鶹��Ʒ S�s important that new treatments don �鶹��Ʒ S�t deplete the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s natural fighters. With this knowledge, scientists can design better clinical trials and create more combination therapies that incorporate NK cells as additional cancer fighters.

“We need to harness innovation and innovative thinking to improve care.” �鶹��Ʒ S� Alicja Copik, associate professor of medicine

Copik �鶹��Ʒ S�s NK therapies are currently in clinical trials. She is also researching whether removing one of molecular �鶹��Ʒ S�brakes �鶹��Ʒ S� that cancer cells use to avoid being killed �鶹��Ʒ S� either through antibodies or genetic engineering �鶹��Ʒ S� can enhance NK cell anti-tumor power. In initial laboratory testing, this approach has shown strong results in killing neuroblastoma cancer cell lines, the most common cancer in infants.

�鶹��Ʒ S�We need to focus on the quality of life for metastatic breast cancer patients, �鶹��Ʒ S� she says. �鶹��Ʒ S�We know chemo and radiation work, but they have drastic side effects. We need to harness innovation and innovative thinking to improve care. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Altomare has vast experience in cancer biology. Her focus is on the cellular pathways that can signal cancer cells to grow or help immunity cells better fight the disease. She is examining the role that inflammation plays in pancreatic cancer �鶹��Ʒ S� one of the deadliest forms of the disease �鶹��Ʒ S� and harnessing the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s innate immunity to create new therapeutics for ovarian cancer.

One of the challenges of breast cancer research is the heterogeneity of breast tumors �鶹��Ʒ S� meaning one patient may have a variety of cells in their tumor that is different from other patients. That makes it difficult for researchers and physicians to determine what exact molecular alternations occurred to cause the cancer and prescribe individualized treatments.

Altomare �鶹��Ʒ S�s lab at the College of Medicine has been studying a particular growth factor called FGFR4 (fibroblast growth factor receptor 4) in breast cancer cells. Her work has discovered that while encouraging the growth of cancer cells, the growth receptor may also suppress immune cells.

She will use the FBCF funding to examine how the presence and absence of the growth factor and pathways in specific tumors impact their ability to spread and how they impact immunity. Her hope is that the discoveries will help create new metastatic breast cancer therapies.

�鶹��Ʒ S�We �鶹��Ʒ S�re looking at ways the tumor cells can be reprogramed to better react to therapies and not be so drug resistant, �鶹��Ʒ S� she says.

The College of Medicine �鶹��Ʒ S�s Cancer Research Division, housed in the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, focuses its work on a variety of areas, including how patients �鶹��Ʒ S� genes play a role in their cancer risk, what causes cancer and cancer metastasis and discovering new ways to harness the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s immune system to fight cancer.

UCF Associate Professor of Medicine Alicja Copik has focused her career on developing technologies that �鶹��Ʒ S�beef up �鶹��Ʒ S� the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s NK cells. These cells are the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s first line of defense in protecting you from viral and other pathogenic infections and even malignancies. Copik �鶹��Ʒ S�s lab has used nanoparticle technology and genetic engineering to make these cells into better-armed cancer killers.

Her technology is being used to grow NK cells that are in clinical trials for the treatment of adults with leukemia. In recent publications, she has studied if removing one of molecular �鶹��Ʒ S�brakes �鶹��Ʒ S� that cancer cells use to avoid being killed �鶹��Ʒ S� either through antibodies or genetic engineering �鶹��Ʒ S� can enhance NK cell anti-tumor power. In initial laboratory testing, this approach is showing strong results in killing neuroblastoma cancer cell lines, the most common cancer in infants. Children with high-risk neuroblastoma have a five-year survival rate of just 50%.

These children must undergo painful treatments that include chemotherapy, antibody therapy and bone marrow transplants �鶹��Ʒ S� half of which fail.

�鶹��Ʒ S�We throw everything but the kitchen sink at these kids and still can �鶹��Ʒ S�t stop the cancer, �鶹��Ʒ S� says Brian Tullius, a U.S. Navy veteran, former flight surgeon, pediatric cancer specialist at AdventHealth in Orlando and the hospital �鶹��Ʒ S�s research medical director for pediatric cellular therapy, who is collaborating in Copik �鶹��Ʒ S�s research.

A video from Copik �鶹��Ʒ S�s lab shows the dramatic results of her technology. Neuroblastoma tumor cells are labeled red. Energized NK cells, which resemble black dots, are added to the red tumor spheroid and quickly kill the tumor cells, as seen by the loss and dispersion of the red cells.

NK cell therapy holds promise for all cancer patients �鶹��Ʒ S� but especially children with neuroblastoma �鶹��Ʒ S� because it comes with very few side effects. And NK cells can be donated by a patient �鶹��Ʒ S�s family, friends or even complete strangers without the new cells attacking the recipient �鶹��Ʒ S�s healthy cells, which happens with other stem cell transplants or T cell therapies.

Copik is joined by UCF postdoctoral researcher Tayler Croom Perez �鶹��Ʒ S�10 in the pediatric cancer study. Their research is supported by the Florida Department of Health Live Like Bella Pediatric Cancer Research Initiative. Croom Perez recently shared the team �鶹��Ʒ S�s preliminary results with other researchers, physicians and patients at the annual Live Like Bella Pediatric Cancer Research Symposium in South Florida.

Croom Perez received her bachelor’s in forensic science from UCF and completed her doctoral degree at Penn State University. She returned to her alma mater to do NK cell research.

�鶹��Ʒ S�I have always loved scientific discovery, �鶹��Ʒ S� Croom Perez says. �鶹��Ʒ S�Now I have a chance to use my science for translational outcomes that directly affect patient outcomes. �鶹��Ʒ S�

In the most recent report published by the British Medical Journal, Copik showed that her energized NK cells may improve the performance of cancer immunotherapy treatments that are currently under development. Such treatments work by unleashing the power of our immune system to fight cancer.

Many of the successful therapies block specific molecules, such as PD-L1, that stop our immune system from eliminating tumor cells. However, many of these therapies only work for a small portion of patients. So scientists are looking for other molecules that cancer may use to hide itself from being attacked by immune cells. One of such promising molecules for developing new treatments is called TIGIT (T cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains). Initial preclinical and early clinical research studies of TIGIT therapies showed promise. They greatly improved outcomes for patients being treated with currently approved immunotherapies and extended the immunotherapy benefits of these therapies to even more patients.

However, interim results of phase three clinical trials of patients with lung cancer have so far not delivered on the therapy �鶹��Ʒ S�s initial promise. This has prompted scientists to search for why these TIGIT drugs could be failing and to identify alternative therapeutic strategies.

Copik believes NK cells might be a solution to the challenges faced by TIGIT-targeted therapies. NK cells are critical to the efficacy of immunotherapies, including those targeting TIGIT, and the UCF researcher �鶹��Ʒ S�s published results suggest that TIGIT therapies may not have worked well because some of them can destroy NK cells. In a prior work funded by the Florida Department of Health James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program and conducted by former postdoctoral student Faqrul Hasan, Copik �鶹��Ʒ S�s team reported that functional, highly activated NK cells that are better at killing cancer also have a high number of TIGIT molecules on their surface. Since most of the therapeutic TIGIT antibody candidates bind to TIGIT and also mark those cells for destruction by the immune system, including by NK cells, the team hypothesized that activated NK cells may also be eliminated.

The scientists tested this hypothesis in the lab and found that when NK cells have TIGIT antibodies attached to their surface, the NK cells commit fratricide, killing each other off. The UCF scientists found that the fratricide effect could be prevented by genetically engineering NK cells to remove their TIGIT molecules. The team thinks that the destruction of NK cells may be a potential reason why some of the anti-TIGIT candidates have not been performing as expected in clinical trials. This work was performed in collaboration with physician and Professor of Pediatrics Dean Lee and his team at Nationwide Children �鶹��Ʒ S�s Hospital.  The collaborative team also found that NK cells that were genetically modified to lack TIGIT were also more metabolically �鶹��Ʒ S�fit �鶹��Ʒ S� and better at killing cancers. The team has shown that getting rid of the TIGIT �鶹��Ʒ S�brake �鶹��Ʒ S� on NK cells makes them better cancer killers, even without introducing other immunotherapy drugs.

Copik says the goal of her research is to �鶹��Ʒ S�try to outsmart cancer. �鶹��Ʒ S�

�鶹��Ʒ S�But we have learned that nature is devilishly smart, �鶹��Ʒ S� she says. �鶹��Ʒ S�We are hoping that by studying how tumors and immune cells respond and evolve after drug treatments, we will be able to devise better combination treatment strategies to improve outcomes for cancer patients. �鶹��Ʒ S�

UCF cancer researcher Alicja Copik created the therapy that stimulates the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s natural killer (NK) cells with nanoparticles to increase their numbers and killing ability.  Kiadis Pharma, one of the world �鶹��Ʒ S�s largest pharmaceutical companies, has licensed the technology and has it in clinical trials as a therapy for cancer. Now, with $9.5 million in funding from the Department of Defense and the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute �鶹��Ʒ S�s (ARMI) BioFabUSA program �鶹��Ʒ S� which specializes in tissue engineering �鶹��Ʒ S� Kiadis has begun clinical trials using NK cell therapy as a potential treatment for COVID-19 patients with weakened immune systems. The study will also see if the therapy protects high-risk patients against respiratory infections like influenza, either alone or in combination with vaccines and antibodies.

�鶹��Ʒ S�We �鶹��Ʒ S�ve lost more than 200,000 Americans from this terrible disease and so there is a great need to develop innovative medicines,” says Robert Igarashi, Kiadis Pharma �鶹��Ʒ S�s vice president of discovery and preclinical development and a former UCF faculty member.   �鶹��Ʒ S�We know the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s natural killer cells surveil and suppress the virally compromised cells, so then we considered the potential of our NK cells as a possible therapeutic for COVID-19. And in our current situation, nationally and internationally, what better time could there be to apply this because there are so many people in need of innovative medicines to fight this pandemic. �鶹��Ʒ S�

�鶹��Ʒ S�We �鶹��Ʒ S�ve lost more than 200,000 Americans from this terrible disease and so there is a great need to develop innovative medicines. �鶹��Ʒ S�  – Robert Igarashi, Kiadis Pharma �鶹��Ʒ S�s vice president of discovery and preclinical development

�鶹��Ʒ S�The NK cells are like the immune system �鶹��Ʒ S�s assassins, �鶹��Ʒ S� she says. �鶹��Ʒ S�With our technology, we supercharge them with nanoparticles to not only increase their numbers but we make them deploy with bigger and heavier guns to better target and kill the bad guys which are invaders like viruses and tumor cells. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Igarashi was a part of Copik �鶹��Ʒ S�s team of researchers who developed the NK cell technology in 2016. The researchers later co-founded the company CytoSen to take the concept to market. In 2019, CytoSen was acquired by Netherlands-based Kiadis Pharma, which is now in clinical trials and hopes to see if the amplified NK cells have the ability to enhance a patient �鶹��Ʒ S�s antiviral immunity against COVID-19 and other viruses that could cause pandemics.

Igarashi explains the vast majority of COVID-19 patients have lymphocytopenia, or a shortage of lymphocytes �鶹��Ʒ S� a type of white blood cell that helps protect the body from infection. The severity of the COVID-19 infection has been correlated to a reduction in the number of NK cells, a type of lymphocytes, in the body. The clinical trials are determining if injecting energized NK cells into ill patients can help them fight COVID-19.

Kiadis Pharma is working in partnership with the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children �鶹��Ʒ S�s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. That institute received approval for an Investigational New Drug from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to study the treatment of viral infections like COVID-19 with the NK cells therapeutic. Igarashi says the potential drug therapy is currently in phase one of clinical trials and could take several years before the drug is approved.

In May,  a cell-based cancer immunotherapy that utilizes a nanoparticle developed at UCF to stimulate a patient �鶹��Ʒ S�s natural cancer-killing cells, headed to Phase II clinical trial.

College of Medicine Associate Professor Alicja Copik and her team developed the technique in 2016 and then co-founded the company CytoSen to take the concept to market. In 2019, the company was acquired by Netherlands-based bio-pharmaceutical firm Kiadis Pharma, which saw the potential to develop new treatment options for cancer patients.

Last week, Kiadis licensed a bundle of technologies �鶹��Ʒ S� including the one developed at UCF �鶹��Ʒ S� to Sanofi in a deal estimated about $1 billion. If the technologies advance through clinical trials and are approved, royalties would follow from commercial sales of products on the market.

Sanofi is based in France and employees more than 100,000 people in 100 countries. The company has 91 products in clinical trials. In 2019, it was ranked the eighth largest pharma company in the world based on sales of about $27.7 billion.

�鶹��Ʒ S�The licensing of Kiadis �鶹��Ʒ S� CD38KO K-NK cells is particularly exciting for Sanofi since we will be studying this cell-based therapeutic with our recently FDA-approved treatment for patients with difficult-to-treat multiple myeloma, in hopes of bringing even more options to these patients with this hematologic cancer, �鶹��Ʒ S� John Reed, the global head of research for Sanofi, says in a press release. �鶹��Ʒ S�At Sanofi, we are committed to pioneering treatments that address unmet healthcare challenges. Innovative collaborations, such as this partnership with Kiadis, have the potential to expand the clinical benefits of our medicines by combining them with synergistic partnered therapeutics to deliver improved outcomes for patients. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Natural killer (NK) cells are part of the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s defense system and act as an army to protect us from invaders such as viruses and infections. Copik discovered a way to make NK cells even more powerful �鶹��Ʒ S� by stimulating them with nanoparticles that multiply them and heighten their killing ability �鶹��Ʒ S� and then use the cells to fight cancer. �鶹��Ʒ S�That �鶹��Ʒ S�s what it is all about, �鶹��Ʒ S� she says, �鶹��Ʒ S�giving patients a fighting chance of cancer survival. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Copik �鶹��Ʒ S�s story about natural cancer-killing cells illustrates one of the paths university research can take to the marketplace where it can change lives. This is why universities invest in that help innovations get patented and licensed to industry. The commercialization process can take years.

�鶹��Ʒ S�Our office is grateful to have the unique opportunity to partner with industry to bring the most promising technological advances developed by our dedicated researchers to market to impact global healthcare and improve quality of life, �鶹��Ʒ S� says Svetlana Shtrom, UCF �鶹��Ʒ S�s director of Office of Technology Transfer.

UCF College of Medicine cancer researcher Dr. Alicja Copik has just discovered a way to make that therapy viable to thousands by using the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s own natural killer (NK) cells in a new way. Her findings were recently published in OncoImmunology.

NK cells are part of the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s defense system and act as an army to protect us from invaders like viruses and infections. Copik has discovered a way to make NK cells even more powerful �鶹��Ʒ S� by stimulating them with nanoparticles that multiply them and heighten their killing ability. Her technology has been licensed and is now progressing to clinical trials as a therapy for leukemia and later for other cancers.

�鶹��Ʒ S�Cancer is a very smart enemy. That �鶹��Ʒ S�s why we have to use so many tools to fight it. �鶹��Ʒ S�

In her latest study, Copik discovered that her energized NK cells do even more. They change the cellular makeup of tumors �鶹��Ʒ S� especially the molecular defenses cancers use to protect themselves from the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s immune system. �鶹��Ʒ S�Cancer is a very smart enemy, �鶹��Ʒ S� Copik says. �鶹��Ʒ S�That �鶹��Ʒ S�s why we have to use so many tools to fight it. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Here �鶹��Ʒ S�s what her research has uncovered:

For a malignant tumor to survive, cancers can place a protein molecule called PDL1 on their cells. The molecule tells the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s immune system, �鶹��Ʒ S�I �鶹��Ʒ S�m one of your own cells, so don �鶹��Ʒ S�t eat me �鶹��Ʒ S� Copik says humorously. For patients with PDL1 on their cancers, new immunotherapy drugs use an antibody that blocks the PDL1 protection, allowing the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s immune system to kill the cancer. These drugs have been very successful �鶹��Ʒ S� even in stopping Stage 4, metastatic cancer and leading to long-lasting remissions �鶹��Ʒ S� but only for patients whose tumors test positive for PDL1. Only 15 to 30 percent of patients �鶹��Ʒ S� depending on the cancer �鶹��Ʒ S� have PDL1 on their cancer cells.

Copik �鶹��Ʒ S�s goal was to make PDL1 therapies effective for more patients. In the lab, she discovered that NK cells, stimulated with the nanoparticles developed in her lab, attack the tumor and induce it to present PDL1 �鶹��Ʒ S� which the new drugs then can target. In her study, combining NK cells with the new immunotherapy drug lead to improved survival rates in mice with cancer.  Recent work from other scientists has shown that once inside the tumor, NK cells go a step further �鶹��Ʒ S� they recruit other immune cells to prime the immune system to attack cancer. �鶹��Ʒ S�So these activated NK cells will work synergistically with these immunotherapies, �鶹��Ʒ S� she says.

�鶹��Ʒ S�[Patients] are your motivation and your inspiration. You know we must do this work now because patients are waiting. �鶹��Ʒ S�

Activated NK cells have advantages over other cancer therapies. First, they seldom cause side effects like chemotherapy and radiation. And the NK cells don �鶹��Ʒ S�t attack healthy cells. So cancer patients could safely receive additional NK cells from people who are not a 100 percent match. Because blood banks remove and discard NK cells when they collect blood platelets and plasma for donation, Copik said there is a potential for scientists to develop ways to save such NK cells for cancer therapies.

Copik envisions her new discovery can be joined with planned NK cell clinical trials. And she said UCF �鶹��Ʒ S�s new comprehensive cancer treatment and research center �鶹��Ʒ S� to be housed in the former Sanford Burnham Prebys research institute �鶹��Ʒ S� will allow College of Medicine researchers even more opportunities to find a cure for cancer. The center will include basic scientists, like Copik, clinical researchers, cancer physicians and patients in the same facility. And the UCF researcher said such partnership will provide new opportunities for discovery �鶹��Ʒ S� and inspiration.

�鶹��Ʒ S�As a scientist, it �鶹��Ʒ S�s important to know from physicians and patients, �鶹��Ʒ S�Where are the gaps in treatment? Where are the challenges? �鶹��Ʒ S� You see where we should be directing our efforts, �鶹��Ʒ S� she says. �鶹��Ʒ S�And when you �鶹��Ʒ S�re in the lab late at night you think about these patients. They are your motivation and your inspiration. You know we must do this work now because patients are waiting. �鶹��Ʒ S�

The medical school has a team of �鶹��Ʒ S�Cancer Assassins �鶹��Ʒ S� �鶹��Ʒ S� researchers in the Burnett School of Biomedical Science who are using their scientific expertise to find a cure:

Dr. Annette Khaled

Khaled chairs the College of Medicine �鶹��Ʒ S�s Cancer Research Division. She is using nanoparticles to track down and kill metastatic breast cancer cells. These cells, which spread from the original tumor, cause cancer to recur and spread into the brain, blood and lungs �鶹��Ʒ S� causing death to most patients. Khaled �鶹��Ʒ S�s technology is expected to begin clinical trials in 2018.

Dr. Deborah A. Altomare

Altomare is finding new ways to fight pancreatic and ovarian cancer by studying how cancer tumors interact with surrounding cells. She is working to develop targeted drugs and immune cell therapy to block the growth and spread of cancer tumors.

Dr. Claudia Andl

Andl creates a cancer tumor �鶹��Ʒ S�s environment in a test tube to better understand how tumor cells interact with their environment and spread. With that focus, she is looking to develop better treatments for oral and esophageal cancers.

Dr. Karl X. Chai

Chai �鶹��Ʒ S�s research focuses on HER2+ breast cancer �鶹��Ʒ S� an especially aggressive form that hits about 1 in 5 breast cancer patients. This type of cancer is hard to fight because the breast cancer cells have a particular protein that causes them to grow and spread quickly. Chai is looking at the novel mechanisms in these cells and what makes them resistant to Herceptin, the drug approved for treatment.

Dr. Ratna Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti is studying the cellular differences between aggressive and more inactive cancers to better identify patients who have a genetic predisposition to develop drug-resistant prostate cancer. By identifying the genetic and epigenetic components of prostate cancer, Chakrabarti hopes to develop better therapies for prostate cancer patients and improve their quality of life. Her lab is also conducting screenings of synthetic compounds that may prove to be novel anti-cancer agents.

Dr. Li-Mei Chen

Chen is identifying the novel mechanisms in lung cancer cells that make them resistant to chemotherapies. Lung cancer is the second-most-common cancer in men and women and is by far the leading cause of cancer deaths. About 1 in 4 cancer deaths are from lung cancer �鶹��Ʒ S� more than colon, breast and prostate cancer combined.

Dr. Alicja Copik

Copik is developing ways to activate the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s Natural Killer cells to kill cancer. NK cells are a veritable army that identify and attack invaders like cancer and viruses. She has developed a technology that uses nanoparticles to activate and grow NK cells to fight cancer. The therapy will begin clinical trials in 2017 and shows promise in treating leukemia and other cancers.

Dr. Jihe Zhao

Zhao �鶹��Ʒ S�s question: Why does the heart rarely get cancer? He is looking to understand why cancer spreads to some organs like the brain and not others like the heart. Dr. Zhao is also discovering how to protect the heart from damage caused by anti-cancer therapies.

Learn more about the medical school �鶹��Ʒ S�s cancer division at ,

Cyto-Sen Therapeutics Inc., a Florida-based start-up company created by NK researchers and physicians including UCF researcher Alicja Copik and others at UCF, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Nationwide Children �鶹��Ʒ S�s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, recently licensed the technology and plans to begin clinical trials by late 2017.

On a computer screen in her lab, Copik �鶹��Ʒ S�s heightened killers literally before your eyes. �鶹��Ʒ S�You realize how powerful this system is when you see these cells actually tearing apart the tumors, �鶹��Ʒ S� she said. �鶹��Ʒ S�These Natural Killer cells are an army and they �鶹��Ʒ S�re your friends. This potential therapy means you have more of these fighters and they are armed to the teeth. �鶹��Ʒ S�

NK cells play an important first-line-of-defense in fighting all foreign cells in the body. Dr. Dean Lee, director of cellular therapy and cancer immunology at Nationwide, serves as medical director and vice president of Cyto-Sen. He said medicine had known very little about NK cells until researchers were able to identify and grow them in the late 1990s. Since then, more research is focusing on NK cell therapies for cancers including lymphoma, leukemia and even brain, ovarian and breast cancers. Previous studies attempted to use other types of cells, even tumor cells, to encourage NK cells to grow. But those therapies were commercially cumbersome and had serious side effects for patients in clinical trials.

UCF �鶹��Ʒ S�s technology uses nanoparticles that signal the NK cells to reproduce and arm themselves to fight the cancer. In Copik �鶹��Ʒ S�s lab, one NK cell taken from a patient and contacted by the nanoparticle yielded 10,000 new cells in two weeks. �鶹��Ʒ S�UCF �鶹��Ʒ S�s discovery has really solved a key problem that makes NK cell therapies more accessible to all, �鶹��Ʒ S� Lee said. �鶹��Ʒ S�We are very excited about the possibilities. �鶹��Ʒ S� If the technology can be safely manufactured and is effective in clinical trials, it could allow any hospital that provides cell therapies such as bone marrow transplants to create their own advanced NK cells on-site for cancer patients, he said.

Phil McKee, chairman of Cyto-Sen, has a personal reason for supporting Copik �鶹��Ʒ S�s work. The physicist/inventor needed chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant to cure his blood cancer and wants to create more natural therapies that beat the disease �鶹��Ʒ S� without severe side effects.

�鶹��Ʒ S�Dr. Copik �鶹��Ʒ S�s delivery-expansion method appears to create an important bridge between our desire to use the body �鶹��Ʒ S�s own cancer-fighting systems and medical science �鶹��Ʒ S�s ability to make that happen in the lab, �鶹��Ʒ S� he said. �鶹��Ʒ S�With her system, we can take what the body naturally has and instead of a few soldiers, we can create a battalion. �鶹��Ʒ S�

The therapy has shown effectiveness in treating acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer of blood-forming tissues including bone marrow. Further study could develop nanoparticles with signals for specific cancers and viruses such as Ebola or HIV, Lee and Copik said.

Lee will lead the manufacturing effort at Nationwide �鶹��Ʒ S�s cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices) facility, which is required to meet the strict quality and safety standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for creating medical therapies for humans.

Copik �鶹��Ʒ S�s NK cell research was supported by two $400,000 grants from the Florida Department of Health �鶹��Ʒ S�s Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program. She said her love of science was inspired by her father, an engineer in her native Poland who created automated mechanical locks and door openings to improve safety for coal miners.

�鶹��Ʒ S�My mother was always proudly showing me pictures of his inventions, �鶹��Ʒ S� she said. �鶹��Ʒ S�That �鶹��Ʒ S�s where I got my curiosity, my passion for developing new things, asking questions and solving problems. �鶹��Ʒ S�

She received her Ph.D. in biochemistry at Utah State University, did post-doctoral work at the University of Texas Medical Branch and Roche Pharmaceuticals, and worked at Florida Hospital before coming to UCF. The NK cell technology is a credit to a multidisciplinary team of researchers, immunologists, biochemists and physicians working with the College of Medicine to find better ways to help cancer patients, she said.

�鶹��Ʒ S�So many people have worked together to get us to this point, �鶹��Ʒ S� she said. �鶹��Ʒ S�As a researcher you dedicate your life to science. To be able to see your idea go from your lab to actual clinical trials that can help patients is a dream come true. �鶹��Ʒ S�