The Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience
Congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Kaweesa and Prof Sandra Loesgen at Whitney Laboratory, who recently published with collaborators in Advances in Cancer Biology - Metastasis - "Combination of the natural product mensacarcin with vemurafenib (Zelboraf) combats BRAF mutant and chemo-resistant melanoma in vitro by affecting cell metabolism and cellular migration."
Melanoma is the most prevalent and aggressive form of skin cancer, often with a low survival rate due to rapid metastasis and a high occurrence of multi-drug resistance (MDR). In this study, they examined the combination treatment of the recently discovered cytotoxic bacterial metabolite mensacarcin and FDA approved therapeutic vemurafenib (Zelboraf ®).
The bacterial compound mensacarcin shows potential in cell culture to stop aggressive metastasis and chemo-resistant melanoma.
Elizabeth Kaweesa recently graduated from the Whitney Lab and the UF Chemistry graduate program. She is now a NIH IRACDA fellow at the University of Illinois, Chicago - continuing her journey in cancer biology and prevention.