Amer Najjar
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Osteosarcoma is a bone cancer that mostly affects young people. About 40% of patients relapse, often with tumors that spread to the lungs, and their outlook remains poor despite aggressive treatment.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Microbiology & Immunology
Biochemistry
- Topics
osteosarcoma
pediatric cancer
bone cancer
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2028
What they work on
- Profile CD24 glycosylation patterns in osteosarcoma cells to identify tumor-specific sugar-modified sites (epitopes) that a therapeutic antibody could selectively target.
- Define how osteosarcoma-specific CD24 glycoforms suppress phagocytosis by alveolar macrophages and enable metastatic growth in the lung, using a mouse model of osteosarcoma metastasis.
- Lay the groundwork for an antibody that distinguishes tumor CD24 from CD24 on normal B and NK cells, reducing on-target/off-tumor effects.
More about the research
Cancer cells that reach the lungs survive partly by displaying CD24, a sugar-coated surface protein that acts as a "don't-eat-me" signal. CD24 stops macrophages, immune cells that swallow and destroy threats, from clearing the tumor cells.
Why it matters
Children and young adults with osteosarcoma whose cancer spreads to the lungs have very poor survival. Identifying sugar-coated forms of CD24 found only on tumor cells could enable antibodies that unmask cancer cells to lung macrophages while sparing healthy immune cells. This could eventually help prevent or reverse lung metastases and improve survival in pediatric osteosarcoma.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Carl Gregory
Texas A&M University-College Station, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Measure how cDkkMo, a dog-specific antisense morpholino that blocks production of the Wnt-inhibitor protein Dkk-1, affects growth, survival and stress resistance of canine osteosarcoma cell lines and canine patient-derived xenografts.
Jenifer Coburn
Medical College of Wisconsin, WI·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether the interaction between the Borrelia burgdorferi surface protein P66 and the macrophage receptor SIRPα weakens innate and adaptive immunity, comparing p66-deficient and gene-restored bacteria in mice over six infection time points.
Shi-He Liu
University of Toledo, OH·Biomedical Engineering
Evaluate whether exosomes displaying both the tumor-homing peptide RGD and the CD47 "don't eat me" peptide on surface protein CD9 (ExoSmart) target pancreatic cancer, using stroma-rich 3D human tumor spheroids in vitro and in vivo.
The school
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: 23 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research.
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