University of Utah Researchers Receive $2.6 Million Grant to Study Lung Tumor Biomechanics

By: JNCCN 360 Staff
Posted: Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Two researchers at the University of Utah are the recipients of a $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how tension in lung tissue may affect the growth and distribution of tumors. Michelle Mendoza, PhD, is a researcher at Huntsman Cancer Institute and Associate Professor of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah. Jeffrey Weiss, PhD, is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and a faculty member in the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute at the University of Utah. The grant will be distributed over the next 5 years. Dr. Mendoza and Dr. Weiss hope the study will lead to the development of neoadjuvant therapies to reduce lung cancer mortality.

“There are a lot of people looking at the stiffness of breast tissue or other material properties and other types of cancers, but not so much in the lung. And it’s interesting, because the lung is always undergoing stretch as we breathe in and out. There’s not a lot of tissues that have that characteristic,” commented Dr. Mendoza in an institutional press release.

The researchers will focus on the role of mechanobiology—an emerging field that explores how cells respond to mechanical signals—in the progression of early benign lesions to lung adenocarcinoma (the most common subtype of non–small cell lung cancer). They simulated how the presence of a solid tumor fills and affects alveolar sacs using computational models developed in the lab of Dr. Weiss. The connective tissues making up the walls of the sacs were found to be sensitive to strain—which may produce a cellular response that allows the tumor to grow. Dr. Weiss has worked in biomechanics for decades, particularly in musculoskeletal science and cardiovascular mechanics.

“It would be a really interesting discovery if it’s contributing to tumor development—because strain could be affected by things in our environment that cause lung damage or scarring,” Dr. Mendoza added.

University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute

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