UVA Health dermatologist Dr. Carolyn Lee often dispenses classic advice: Wear sunscreen to prevent skin cancer. But what if there were a cancer-fighting lotion to reverse damage from sun exposure?
In a few years, there might be.
Lee is creating a cream containing an ingredient that turns sun-damaged precancerous skin cells back into normal ones. Then, like regular skin cells, those at-risk cells simply migrate to the surface and slough off.
Dr. Carolyn Lee, a UVA Health dermatologist, will pitch her idea of a cream that, when rubbed into the skin, turns sun-damaged precancerous skin cells back into normal ones. (Contributed photo)
There are creams already on the market that treat precancerous skin cells, but they make patients’ skin swell and redden. It’s so uncomfortable that many users quit after just one treatment.
“What we envision is that people will periodically treat themselves with a cream that safely gets rid of precancerous cells and does not lead to an obvious or painful inflammatory response,” Lee said.
On Tuesday, Lee will join seven other University of Virginia researchers to present her idea to a panel of judges in the same way inventors pitch their gizmos and gadgets to investors on the popular TV show, “Shark Tank.” But instead of products like Scrub Daddy, the happy-faced kitchen sponge, the UVA Health pitches will be a bit more serious:
“Advancing SAS1B-Directed Therapeutics for Solid Tumors”
“Discovery of novel ZBP1 inhibitors for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other major human disorders through collaborative high-throughput screening”
And Lee’s pitch: “Development of novel RET inhibitors for topical skin cancer prevention.”
Lee said there is typically money available for new and exciting ideas. And when a promising drug is ready for market, the funding flows. But between those two extremes is where scientists often run out of cash and steam.
“She’s right,” said Mark Esser, chief scientific officer and head of the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology, who will serve as a judge in
The gap between bench and bedside “is what I call the ‘translational valley of death,’” he said.
Esser has a hand in designing the sprawling research and discovery space. He’s eliminated spaces for vending machines on the upper floors and instead wants the researchers to visit a first-floor café, so they’ll mingle and talk face-to-face about their work. (Photo by James Carter)
It’s also where 鶹ƽ Manning Institute comes in. “Our mission is simply to transform science into medicines,” said Esser, a UVA alumnus with a doctorate in microbiology and immunology and a resume that includes top positions at leading pharmaceutical companies. “Because our patients are waiting.”
The institute’s goal is to take a process that often stretches seven or eight years and compress it to two or three.
“We are unapologetically going to try to do drug discovery and development in academia, based on the ,” he said. “But we’re not going to organize around traditional academic departments. We’re going to organize around diseases.”
The “SPARK Tank” competition, scheduled for Tuesday from noon to 4 p.m. in the School of Medicine’s Claude Moore Medical Education Auditorium, is one of the institute’s first public events. It drew more than 40 entries, winnowed to a final eight. Through generous philanthropy, there is $250,000 available to kick-start some of these UVA ideas, with additional follow-on investments possible, Esser said.
But beyond the Tuesday competition, Esser says this is the kind of work the institute will pursue every day. It will fund and mentor 鶹ƽ brightest minds to tackle some of medicine’s most vexing problems. It will also provide space for scientists, researchers and students from across the University to gather and collaborate.
And that “valley of death”?
“It’s going to be our sweet spot,” Esser said.
The Manning Institute building is scheduled for completion by the end of next year. It will draw faculty, researchers and students from several UVA schools to work on creating cures in a fraction of the time it takes now. (Photo by James Carter)
Lee is planning a straightforward, layman’s-terms pitch to the judges, hoping to convey the promise of her research and how it will help her patients.
“As a clinician-scientist, I sort of have a foot in both realms,” she said. “I see patients and, at the same time, I’m pushing the envelope in the lab. The hardest thing is to get those two to connect.”
In her clinic, she frequently freezes off cancerous spots. That’s effective if a patient has one spot, like a single dandelion in a lawn. “But if you have a hundred dandelions, that’s too many to pick by hand,” she said.
