An interdisciplinary team at Stony Brook University, led by Dr. Yusuf Hannun, has received an $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study sphingolipids (SLs) and their role in cancer. The five-year grant, awarded by the NIH's National Cancer Institute, is the only NIH Program Project Grant (P01) given this year to a State University of New York institution. The funding will support research through August 2030.
Sphingolipids are a type of fat molecule involved in key cellular functions related to cancer, such as cell differentiation, death, metastasis, and response to stress. Some SLs also influence how chemotherapeutic drugs work against cancer.
“This award represents a major milestone for our institution and an important advancement in cancer research,” said Raymond Bergan, MD, Director of the Stony Brook Cancer Center. “The NIH grant is yet another measure of the stature of our Cancer Center and its national leadership in understanding the role of lipids and metabolism in the formation of cancer and how that knowledge can be applied to prevention and treatment.”
Dr. Hannun explained that SLs play roles across various types of cancer therapy. “While our research with the help of this grant will be broad and far-reaching, we will initially focus on SLs in breast cancer development and therapy, the action of DNA damaging chemotherapies, and mitigating toxicity of chemotherapy,” he said.
Previously, the team concentrated on SLs in breast and liver cancers but plans to expand research into lung cancers and leukemias as well.
The research group has experience spanning decades and has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers together. Their expertise covers biochemistry, medicine, pathology, physiology, and pharmacology. They have identified enzymes related to SL metabolism as targets for new therapies; developed potential anti-cancer compounds; studied how specific SL enzymes affect processes like cell migration and immune response; and explored SLs as biomarkers.
Key members include Daniel Canals, PhD; Christopher Clarke, PhD; Chiara Luberto, PhD; Cungui Mao, PhD; and Fabiola Velazquez, PhD. Their areas of focus range from molecular mechanisms affecting cancer progression to developing models for novel interventions.
This collaborative group operates within The Lipid Cancer Laboratory at Stony Brook Cancer Center as part of a larger program dedicated to lipid signaling and metabolism in cancer—one of three main research programs at the center focused on advancing cancer discovery and treatment.
Currently approved medical uses for SL-based therapeutics are limited to conditions like inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis. There are ongoing studies exploring these compounds for use in treating cancer.