Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center Looks to the Sea and Skies for Cancer Discoveries
Summary
- University of Miami scientists are using ocean species like damselfish to uncover cancer’s metabolic secrets and identify new therapeutic targets.
- Collaboration between marine biologists and Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers is revealing unexpected links between mitochondria, metabolism and tumor growth.
- Studies connect Superfund site exposure to higher cancer risk, underscoring the need for community-based research and preventive action.
Just beyond Miami’s shimmering coastline, scientists are charting a course that could redefine human health. At the intersection of marine biology and oncology, collaborations between the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science and Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, are turning the ocean into a living laboratory and launchpad for innovation.
For decades, researchers have looked beneath the surface of the ocean for answers. But now, a new arm of the Rosenstiel School is bringing scientists together in teams to do deep dives at the Glassell Family Center for Marine Biomedicine, probing beneath the ocean’s surface for clues about cancer.
The Damselfish and Cancer
The damselfish is a tropical species common to South Florida reefs. Within its cells lies a mystery that could illuminate cancer’s darkest corners.
“I’ve been working with this animal model system for my whole career. I basically discovered it when I was doing my Ph.D. dissertation,” said Michael Schmale, Ph.D., a marine biologist at the Rosenstiel School. “It took years to realize the tumors were caused by a transmissible pathogen—an agent that moves from fish to fish both in the wild and in the lab.”
What makes this pathogen extraordinary is its hideout: the mitochondria.
“No animal virus has ever been seen replicating inside mitochondria,” Dr. Schmale explained.
While there have been numerous studies of the roles of mitochondria in cancer, existing models haven’t determined how changes in mitochondria might initiate cancer formation.
Cracking Cancer’s Metabolic Code
Enter cancer metabolism expert David Lombard, M.D., Ph.D., Sylvester’s vice chair of clinical and translational research and co-leader of the Cancer Epigenetics Program. He and Dr. Schmale met at a scientific retreat hosted by the Glassell Family Center and Sylvester, where they realized their research intersected.
“What we had been focusing on, in terms of metabolic changes in the mitochondria, were right up David’s alley, and they were in an area that we had hit a complete roadblock because we don’t have any of the technology necessary to do the kind of metabolic studies that David does on a regular basis,” Dr. Schmale said.
Dr. Lombard’s lab uses a mass spectrometer that can map hundreds of metabolites in a single tissue sample.
“The time is long past where major advances come from scientists working in silos. Science has become so specialized and knowledge has expanded so much that advances really require teams of people with complementary expertise who approach problems from very different perspectives,” said Dr. Lombard, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the Miller School. “I think the collaboration that Dr. Schmale and I have is a great example of that.”
Cancer in the Lab
Dr. Lombard studies the connections between the epigenome and metabolism—the way genes get turned on and off in cells and how the output of those processes can result in cancer and aging.
“We’re constantly looking for new Achilles’ heels and new therapeutic vulnerabilities to exploit for cancer treatment,” Dr. Lombard said, adding the damselfish model is a “wonderful” system for that purpose.
Major advances often arise from basic organisms. The essence of what we know about how cells choose to divide, Dr. Lombard noted, comes from studies on yeast conducted a long time ago. That understanding led to a whole class of cancer medicines.
“So, when you pursue basic knowledge in model organisms, you never really know what you might get out of it. But sometimes it’s just dynamite and world-changing,” he said.
In the damselfish, Dr. Schmale’s research revealed a paradox. In the fish tumors, mitochondrial metabolism is suppressed. If mitochondria are trashed, cancer shouldn’t thrive.
“Yet, here it does,” Dr. Lombard said. “That contradiction could reveal vulnerabilities we’ve never considered.”
Three Pillars Linking Ocean and Health
The collaborative work of Dr. Lombard and Dr. Schmale rests on three pillars:
• Animal models: Marine species as mirrors for human disease.
• Remedies from the sea: Sponges and algae yielding compounds for cancer drugs.
• Hazards from the sea: Toxins like red tide remind us of nature’s double edge.
The ocean offers models and possibilities for lifesaving medicines, as well as critical early warnings. Giant marine viruses—genomic leviathans when compared to other viruses—may hold clues to gene transfer and cancer evolution. At the Rosenstiel School, the largest worldwide resource of Aplysia, a sea slug, has taught Nobel-winning lessons about memory and now serves as a model for Alzheimer’s disease and stroke survival.
Anemones regenerate without scars, inspiring new ways to think about burn treatments and wound healing. Cobia have high lipid and fat contents that are ideal for those healing from cancer treatment. It’s even being used to feed UM’s student athletes in the athletic dining hall.
Atmospheric Studies and Cancer
Beyond marine animals, the team science is also moving over to atmospheric researchers who are studying cancer-causing factors in the environment, such as those from National Priority List (NPL) Superfund Sites. At the same retreat where Dr. Lombard and Dr. Schmale met, Erin Kobetz, Ph.D., M.P.H., an epidemiologist, associate director for community outreach and engagement at Sylvester and the Judy H. Schulte Senior Endowed Chair in Cancer Research, workshopped a community-engaged research plan that relies on interdisciplinary collaboration from experts in atmospheric science, marine biology, geology and bioengineering.
Dr. Kobetz’s team found that women living near NPL Superfund sites had a 30% higher likelihood of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) after controlling for established risk factors. And that risk was more than doubled among women with both close Superfund proximity and high particulate matter exposure.
“Interdisciplinary, community-based science is essential to understanding how environmental exposures influence cancer risk and outcomes. This work is about partnering with communities to explain differences in cancer burden and using that evidence to drive public health actions that make a measurable difference,” said Dr. Kobetz.
Why Miami? Why Now?
Proximity matters. From Rosenstiel’s dock, Dr. Schmale can collect damselfish via a 20-minute boat ride. But location alone doesn’t fuel discovery. For Dr. Kobetz, it’s also a matter of listening to the community and learning more about how the environment plays a role in health outcomes.
Dr. Kobetz is in the midst of editing a new manuscript to share findings on one of her most recent Superfund studies. For Dr. Lombard, the work is early-stage, aspirational and urgently in need of funding. Grants have been submitted, but philanthropy could accelerate progress.
From the damselfish’s mitochondria to the ocean’s vast genetic vault and environment, Miami’s scientists are rewriting the script of biomedical research. The answers to cancer and neurodegeneration may not lie in a petri dish alone. They may be swimming beneath the waves or in the atmosphere where we live.
Tags: cancer epigenetics, Cancer Epigenetics Program, Dr. David Lombard, Dr. Erin Kobetz, epigenetics, Newsroom, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center