Skin cancer, esophageal cancer and endometriosis are all on Madhavi Kadakia’s hit list. The Wright State University researcher has been using high technology and her expertise in genetics to help diagnose and treat these sometimes deadly diseases. Kadakia, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Boonshoft School of Medicine and College of Science and Mathematics, is riding the wave of personalized medicine, an increasingly popular medical model that uses molecular analysis to customize health care. Genetics is a big part of that.
“Your genetic makeup is going to give a clue as to what drugs you’re going to respond to, what drugs you’re not going to respond to,” said Kadakia, “We have reached a point where we can not only diagnose but treat patients based on their genetic makeup.” Last year, Kadakia received a grant to purchase a next generation sequencer, which accelerates genome sequencing by producing thousands or millions of sequences concurrently. The sequencer has revolutionized understanding of the complexity of cellular gene expression and provided deeper insights into the genomic landscapes of many diseases.
“It’s very important; it’s really a state-of-the-art technology,” she said. “We were very excited to be able to get it here at Wright State. People are really surprised at the equipment we have.”
Kadakia became involved in a research project with Steven Lindheim, M.D., professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology for Wright State at Premier Health. The project involves endometriosis, an inflammatory gynecological condition that produces chronic pelvic pain and infertility. To diagnose endometriosis, it is often necessary to perform a biopsy, the surgical removal of tissue from the patient. The research project is instead taking bodily fluids including urine and blood and analyzing the DNA, proteins, and metabolytes to create a panel of biomarkers that hopefully identify women with endometriosis, obviating the need to perform surgery to diagnosis this debilitating condition.
“You want to diagnose it quickly and try to come up with a way to diagnose it in a noninvasive manner,” Kadakia said. The research is being aided by the Wright State University Premier Health Bio Repository, which provides patient body fluids and tissue samples. As part of the funding by the National Cancer Institute National Institutes of Health, Kadakia is also studying the effects of vitamin D on cell survival in non-melanoma skin cancer. Vitamin D is thought to be important to maintain a healthy immune system. While vitamin D can be obtained from exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, too much UV exposure can also cause skin cancer.
“So we’re really interested in how much UV radiation is good and how much is not good and how vitamin D regulates those genes,” she said. “We are focusing on non-melanoma skin cancer since the gene we are interested in is overexpressed there. Our studies will provide more insight into the role of vitamin D in cancer.”
Her research on esophageal cancer is in collaboration with Sangeeta Agrawal, M.D., of the Dayton VA Medical Center. To identify the precancerous esophageal condition, biopsies must be conducted over time, even though only a small percentage of the patients will actually get cancer. “Can you imagine the anxiety?” Kadakia said. “Every time you go to the doctor, you don’t know if your condition has worsened.” The goal of the research is to prevent the need for biopsies by genetically analyzing tissue and blood samples during different stages. The less-invasive procedure would be more cost effective and reduce patient anxiety.
Excerpted from the WSU Newsroom, read the full article.
