Wolfgang Losert is a Challenge Grant Recipient
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- Published: Monday, October 19 2015 10:04
Wolfgang Losert was among this year's Challenge Grant recipents announced at the joint University of Maryland, Baltimore and the University of Maryland, College Park Research and Innovation Seed Grant Program on October 14.
The new Challenge Grant, created to expand and improve the seed grant initiative, offers two years of funding to senior investigators to help them gather initial data. Professor Losert was chosen for his work on Nanotopographic Diagnostic Panel for Breast Cancer Metastasis. This research brings together investigators with expertise in physics (Losert), chemistry (John Fourkas) and tumor cell biology (Stuart Martin) to examine the differences between how normal cells and tumor cells respond to surface texture. Leveraging unique capabilities to manufacture a range of different surface textures and advanced imaging and analysis of cell movement, the project will define cell behaviors that are associated with a higher probability of cancer metastasis. By testing these principles on tumor cells isolated from breast cancer patients, the project will also develop methods for rapidly testing the risk that patient tumor cells will metastasize, which is the principal cause of cancer patient death.
