Napoleone Ferrara, Ph.D., was propelled into the national spotlight last week, when he was named one of 11 winners of the first Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences. This new prize—awarding a no-strings-attached $3 million to each recipient—was bestowed by Silicon Valley innovators Sergey Brin, Anne Wojcicki, Mark Zuckerberg and Yuri Milner. One goal of the prize is to make household names out of the country’s top scientists.
Ferrara is already well-known in many households. Previously at Genentech, he is now distinguished professor at the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center and he was here at Sanford-Burnham last week to participate in The Preuss Foundation Seminar on brain cancer. This unique, invitation-only event brought together a who’s who of San Diego neuroscientists, neurosurgeons, pathologists, stem cell experts, basic cell biologists and clinical oncologists. Participants include the leaders of all three of San Diego’s National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Centers, National Academy of Sciences members and a Nobel Prize laureate. Sanford-Burnham scientists Kristiina Vuori, M.D. Ph.D., Evan Snyder, M.D., Ph.D., and Robert Wechsler-Reya, Ph.D. were among these elite.
The 25 attendees sit at a circular table, taking turns to discuss their most recent work. But rather than simply giving the same talk they’d give anywhere, these researchers emphasize the scientific hurdles that could be broken down with help from the group. This year, this mini-“Manhattan Project” for brain cancer focused on ways to harness the potential of next-generation molecular diagnostics to guide improved personalized treatments for the disease.
Ferrara and his team study the way the body regulates angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. They were the first to describe vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and demonstrate that it regulates angiogenesis during embryonic development and other normal processes. What’s more, they discovered that VEGF also helps direct angiogenesis in tumors—providing new blood vessels that feed and foster growing tumors. These studies led to Genentech’s development of bevacizumab, a humanized antibody that targets VEGF. Marketed as Avastin®, bevacizumab is now a FDA-approved drug for the treatment of certain types of colorectal, lung and other cancers.
In his talk at The Preuss Foundation Seminar, Ferrara spoke about the challenges of using the tumor microenvironment—the neighboring tissues, hormones and other signals that influence a tumor—to find biomarkers. Most current tumor biomarkers are proteins overproduced on the outside of cancer cells, which allow scientists to distinguish them from normal cells. But Ferrara and his team are now looking in the microenvironment for biomarkers that might help predict the development and progression of cancer, as well as the likelihood a tumor might become resistant to treatment.
In a customary scientific symposium, experts from different fields, departments and institutions, might see each other as competitors—competing for grant funding and recruits, racing to publish their findings first. But after Ferrara’s talk, the group brainstormed as a team, asking questions that began with, “How can we…” and “What do we need to…” The coming together of experts in a unique Preuss Foundation setting, around a major problem, will surely lead to collaborative projects and advance brain cancer science—ultimately bringing new diagnostics and treatments to patients faster.