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Cell Biology and Cancer Research Awarded $1.6M in Federal Funding

ALBANY, N.Y., August 3, 2009—Michelle Lennartz, Ph.D., professor in the Center for Cell Biology and Cancer Research at Albany Medical College, has been awarded two grants, totaling $1.6 million by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue her research of the causes of inflammation and autoimmune diseases, and to facilitate the application of new findings in atherosclerosis.

A four-year, $1.2 million renewal grant will allow Dr. Lennartz to study the “Role of Protein Kinase C in Macrophage Activation.”  A macrophage is a type of white blood cell that recognizes and ingests pathogens and recruits other immune cells to respond to the pathogen. The focus of Dr. Lennartz’s research is to understand how macrophages respond to pathogens and to study the proteins that the macrophages release during that response. Some of these proteins can promote tumor metastasis or chronic inflammation. Identifying those proteins may lead to the discovery of novel targets for regulation of chronic inflammation.

According to Dr. Lennartz, “When a macrophage destroys a pathogen, many things happen, such as the production of hydrogen peroxide and the synthesis of proteins. While hydrogen peroxide can kill the pathogen, it can also damage the healthy tissue around it. In atherosclerosis, the hydrogen peroxide may produce bad lipids that promote cardiovascular disease. So while we want the macrophage to eat the pathogen, we may like to decrease the hydrogen peroxide to prevent tissue damage. But, how can you do that if you don’t understand how the macrophage regulates hydrogen peroxide production?”

“I like to use the analogy of a car mechanic and a basic scientist: We spend a lot of time learning about how things work so that when something goes wrong, we can diagnose the problem and repair or treat it.  For example, in some autoimmune diseases, the macrophage process goes wrong, but we need to understand how and why. Once we know this, we can design drugs to fix what’s going wrong,” explains Lennartz.

In addition to this four-year basic science award, Dr. Lennartz was awarded a two-year, $406,000 grant for the “Role of Macrophage Activation in Carotid Plaque Instability” from NIH that will enable her to apply her studies on macrophages to cardiovascular disease, with the goal of identifying predictors of heart attack and stroke.

Collaborating with clinicians in the pathology department and in The Vascular Surgery Group located at Albany Medical Center, Lennartz and her team are examining human carotid plaque tissue, looking for the specific proteins associated with either stable or unstable plaques. Plaque is a build-up of fat and cells in the arteries.  As the fat accumulates and the cells multiply, blood flow decreases.  Stable plaques have a thick cap that stands up to the pressure of the  blood being pumped through the artery.  Unstable plaques have a soft center with a thin cap that can rupture. 

“The hope would be that we could eventually develop a blood test that would help the physician predict an imminent heart attack or stroke before it happens,” says Lennartz. “We’re interested in understanding the differences between stable plaques and the unstable plaques that would rupture and cause heart attacks and strokes.”

Albany Medical Center is northeastern New York’s only academic health sciences center. It consists of Albany Medical College, Albany Medical Center Hospital and the Albany Medical Center Foundation, Inc. Additional information about Albany Medical Center can be found at www.amc.edu.
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