Cancer Epigenetics Researcher Builds a Foundation for Future Treatments
Summary
- Overcoming cancer resistance begins in basic science labs and Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher Dr. Lluis Morey is searching for molecular changes that lead to resistance.
- Dr. Morey came to Miami from Europe because he was impressed with Sylvester’s emphasis on basic science.
- Dr. Morey’s epigenetics research has led to a potential new treatment for head and neck cancers.
Sometimes, standard cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation aren’t enough. Cancers can develop resistance and metastasize, eventually leading to a patient’s death.
Overcoming resistance begins in basic science labs, where researchers like Lluis Morey, Ph.D., search for molecular changes that lead to resistance, understand how these mechanisms of resistance work and lay the groundwork for new therapeutic approaches.
“You need to understand what the problem is in order to identify new pathways to explore and to develop new drugs,” said Dr. Morey, an associate professor in the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics and basic science leader for the breast cancer site disease group at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Since starting his lab at Sylvester in 2016, Dr. Morey has been dedicated to creating knowledge that drives solutions to resistance for people with breast cancer and head and neck cancers.
Basic Science and Cancer Epigenetics Research
Dr. Morey grew up in Mallorca, Spain, earned his Ph.D. at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Biotech Research and Innovation Centre at the University of Copenhagen and the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona.
At a conference, he met Ramin Shiekhattar, Ph.D., the co-leader of Sylvester’s Cancer Epigenetics Program and a professor in the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics, who encouraged Dr. Morey to come to Miami. It’s uncommon for researchers trained in Europe to start their own labs in the United States. The funding and grant writing systems are very different. But Dr. Morey was convinced when he met Stephen Nimer, M.D., director and Oscar de la Renta Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at Sylvester and a professor of medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology at the Miller School.
“It was very clear that he understood the importance of basic science in developing new therapeutic options for patients, which was important to me,” Dr. Morey said.
He was also impressed by Dr. Nimer’s commitment to recruiting scientists working on epigenetics.
“There’s another layer beyond the genetics that regulates oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, and because this is not a mutation, you can revert it with drugs,” Dr. Morey said. “Even though cancers have genetic mutations, if we can reverse the epigenome, you can kill the cancer cells.”
Potential Head and Neck Cancer Treatment
Dr. Morey’s epigenetics research has led to a potential new treatment for head and neck cancers. He found that about 20% of head and neck cancer patients had specific defects in the chemical modification of histones, the building blocks of epigenetics. His team and collaborators discovered that these defects can be exploited for new therapeutic interventions.
His lab’s preclinical research indicated that tumors with the epigenetic mark would be sensitive to two drugs, olaparib and decitabine, which are already FDA-approved for use against other tumors but have not been tested in head and neck cancers.
“What we are trying to do now is team up with head and neck surgeons and physicians to see whether we could open a clinical trial combining these two drugs in patients that have advanced disease — patients that have already received all the drugs, but they don’t respond,” Dr. Morey said.
Possibilities for Triple Negative Breast Cancer
Dr. Morey is also studying mechanisms of resistance in triple-negative breast cancer, which accounts for 10% to 15% of breast cancers and is more aggressive than other subtypes.
There are currently no therapies for triple negative breast cancer that target a specific gene or protein. Dr. Morey’s lab could change that. The researchers recently discovered a new set of proteins that appear to be important in tumors that develop resistance to treatment, as well as those that don’t respond to chemotherapy at all.
They’re now gathering clinical and pre-clinical data to show that these proteins could be targets for treatment, either with drugs that are already available or that are specifically developed for this purpose.
“Our work is very basic-science oriented, always with the hope of one day being translational,” Dr. Morey said. “We want to identify what is wrong, then inspire people to develop new compounds.”
Basic Science is Key
Science is a lifestyle for Dr. Morey. Even when he’s not in the lab, he’s reading and thinking about research. He considers it almost a hobby, alongside his love of playing rock guitar.
Though he’s made large sacrifices for his career, including moving across the globe, it’s been worth it to him.
“One thing that is very fascinating is that when you make a discovery — it can be a small discovery, it doesn’t need to change the world — you are the first person in the world that has this observation,” he said.
His career illustrates how these small discoveries are essential to big changes in treating cancer.
“Basic science is key, absolutely key, to progress,” he said. “The thing that people don’t understand sometimes is that it can take 10 years, 20 years, 50 years. Little by little, you can make big things.”
Tags: breast cancer, cancer epigenetics, cancer research, Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics, Dr. Lluis Morey, epigenetics, genetics, head and neck cancers, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, team science, triple-negative breast cancer