Dr. Amitha Palamakumbura Achieves Breakthrough in Oral Cancer Research

Research Assistant Professor Dr. Amitha Palamakumbura recently made new inroads in her research on the lysyl oxidase propeptide as an inhibitor of oral cancer when she found that LOX-PP specifically inhibits FGF signaling and not EFG signaling to inhibit the rapid growth or oral cancer cells.

Dr. Palamakumbura is a member of Professor Dr. Philip Trackman’s lab in the Department of Periodontology and Oral Biology. Her research is partially supported by a R03 grant titled, "LOX Pro-peptide Inhibition of FGF Signaling in Oral Cancer," which was awarded to Dr. Palamakumbura by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in September 2008. This is Dr. Palamakumbra’s first grant and is funded through September 2010.

Hanny Hamoui DMD 11 assisted Dr. Palamakumbura with this research as part of his APEX rotation and recently entered a poster of their findings in the 2009 Science Day, which won the predoctoral poster category.

"These new findings are important because they demonstrate that LOX-PP show specificity toward the FGF signaling pathway among several pathways elevated in cancer cells," said Dr. Palamakumbura. "Identifying these molecular targets are useful for developing potential therapeutics against oral cancer."