Nutrition and Microbiome to Enhance Cancer Therapy

Rachel Newsome
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Medicine, UF College of Medicine

In the battle against cancer, we have a few trillion foot soldiers on our side: the gut microbiome, the flora and fauna that live in our digestive tract and help our immune system fight against disease. Our work identifies products produced by the microbiome from digestion, which can enhance immune-targeted treatments for cancer. We will discuss how we are developing these natural digestion products into commercially available therapies for cancer using medicinal chemistry and the path from university discovery to biotech startup.

Rachel Newsome is a past cancer research trainee who has been heavily involved in UF Health Cancer Center educational programs. She currently works in the lab of Christian Jobin, Ph.D., co-leader of our Immuno-Oncology and Microbiome research program.

Core Standards

SC.912.L.16.8 Explain the relationship between mutation, cell cycle, and uncontrolled cell growth potentially resulting in cancer.

SC.912.N.4.2 Weigh the merits of alternative strategies for solving a specific societal problem by comparing a number of different costs and benefits, such as human, economic, and environmental.

SC.912.N.1.6 Describe how scientific inferences are drawn from scientific observations and provide examples from the content being studied.

SC.912.L.14.46 Describe the physiology of the digestive system, including mechanical digestion, chemical digestion, absorption and the neural and hormonal mechanisms of control.

CPALMS
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