Pitt researchers find better cancer treatment Hallie Johnson, Staff Writer

A Pitt… Pitt researchers find better cancer treatment Hallie Johnson, Staff Writer

A Pitt research team created an anti-cancer molecule shown to possess 10 to 100 times more potency than current cancer-treatment drugs.

The molecule, called meayamycin, is the product of six years of research. The molecule successfully worked against breast and cervical cancer cells, breast cancer cells responding the best so far, Kazunori Koide, an assistant professor of chemistry at Pitt, said. As the lead investigator of the project, he said meayamycin works like the leading cancer drug paclitaxel (sold as Taxol) by stopping cancer cells from dividing, but meayamycin does so in lower concentrations.

The lower concentrations, added with its increased strength, could result in patients needing less meayamycin for cancer treatment and even possibly reduce side effects from treatment, Koide said.

Koide and his team developed the molecule in such a way that it does not attach to a patient’s DNA or the other usual protein targets in a patient’s cells, unlike current cancer drugs, Koide said.

Koide and his team received aid from the American Chemistry Society, The American Cancer Society, Pitt, and the prestigious National Institutes of Health, which awards the top 10 percent of studies submitted each term, Koide said.

But the six-year process of developing the molecule is yet to be finished. With his current team of one postgraduate student, one graduate student and one undergraduate student, and the collaboration of the medical school at Pitt, they have discovered this “new way to treat cancer,” but their research is far from over, Koide said.

After completing the testing of cancer cells, testing on meayamycin needs to be done on mice as well as humans, Koide added. Already three pharmacies wish to use their own facilities for further testing. Other universities, as well as Pitt, are also interested, Koide said.

Still, Koide said, it will be another seven to eight years before meayamycin makes it to the clinics.

“It may or may not make it to FDA approval,” Koide said. “But, people will now be able to learn from it, study it and hopefully make new discoveries.”

Pitt dance instructor wins Teacher of the Year award Eli Dile, Staff Writer

Pitt dance instructor Susan Gillis Kruman has been named Teacher of the Year at the University Level by the Pennsylvania State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

Kruman is the program head for Pitt’s dance minor and has been the advisor for the Pitt Dance Ensemble since 1978.

“You really have to love to teach in order to do it,” Kruman said.

She added that teachers have to constantly renew themselves and try different things in their teaching.

She said she enjoys teaching small classes because she really gets to know her students. She said she learns about them in a physical sense as well.

“I believe how people move tells you a lot about them,” Kruman said.

Kruman began dancing at a young age, taking ballet lessons when she was 7 years old. She received her bachelor of fine arts in dance from the University of Utah and a master’s degree in education from Pitt.

She teaches many dance classes including ballet, modern dance, jazz dance, choreography and also yoga.

Kruman added with a laugh that not all of her students are female and she does teach men to dance as well.