As most cancers remedies proceed their evolution whereas new thrilling prospects emerge, one UNLV alumna is doing her half to mitigate one of many world’s most unrelenting maladies.
“At UNLV, Dr. [Steen] Madsen offered the radiation remedy experience, Dr. [Henry] Hirschberg offered the nanoparticle experience, and I had the immunotherapy expertise. This collaborative spirit led to the era of latest concepts that I took with me into my Ph.D. program and is one thing I see in my job now,” mentioned Amani Makkouk, a ’10 MS Well being Physics. “If you collaborate with totally different fields, you all the time generate new and thrilling concepts.”
Makkouk now oversees biomarker methods for immunotherapy medical trials as an affiliate direct at AbbVie, a pharmaceutical firm creating new most cancers analysis and coverings.
At AbbVie, Makkouk works within the subject of CAR-T Cell remedy, a novel sort of immunotherapy the place immune cells, known as T cells, are extracted from the bloodstream and engineered to create a greater model of themselves. When re-inserted into the affected person, the T cells can kill cancerous cells extra simply.
“This has led to cures, which has been a dream within the most cancers subject,” Makkouk mentioned. “At AbbVie, we work on establishing medical trials to place our cutting-edge therapies into sufferers. They work on enhancing the immune system so it may combat most cancers higher. How can we all know if the drug is working correctly? And the way can we determine which sufferers will profit most from our therapy? That’s what we search to search out.”
Makkouk was born and raised in Lebanon earlier than she got here to the U.S. to pursue her grasp’s diploma in well being physics at UNLV in 2008. Together with her background in pharmacy and an curiosity in immunology, Makkouk was enticed by the chance to be taught extra about radiation remedy.
“I found that radiation remedy in Las Vegas was a robust subject for utility and analysis,” she recalled. “UNLV was a essential chief on this subject, and Dr. Madsen was a guru in novel radiation therapies. I needed to get my diploma from a college the place this was their experience.”
As a graduate pupil dwelling in a distant nation, Makkouk excelled in her research at UNLV, due largely to the assist, she mentioned, that she obtained from the campus neighborhood.
“We met with the graduate pupil affiliation who launched us to life within the U.S. They offered us with plenty of assets and assist,” she recalled. “That they had plenty of range initiatives and I actually cherished that. The campus was very accessible and my recollections from there’ll all the time be ingrained in my thoughts.”
She discovered two key mentors at UNLV: Steen Madsen, professor and chair of the Division of Well being Physics and Diagnostic Sciences, whose analysis focuses on the therapeutic makes use of of light- and ultrasound-based approaches for the therapy of malignant mind tumors; and adjunct professor Dr. Henry Hirschberg, who additionally serves as analysis professor on the Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic on the College of California, Irvine.
Beneath Madsen’s tutelage, Makkouk accomplished her grasp’s thesis on nanoparticle-based radiation remedy in much less time than Madsen mentioned it will usually take for a mission of that complexity.
“Amani was a fast learner and was in a position to generate outcomes in a short time which could be troublesome once you’re engaged on a grasp’s mission,” Madsen recalled. “The mission I had her engaged on was very troublesome. She had some background in pharmacology and I assumed she’d be capable to be taught the totally different methods that have been required for her specific mission. She was unbelievable.”
After UNLV, Makkouk studied below Dr. George Wiener, director of the Holden Complete Most cancers Heart on the College of Iowa, for her Ph.D. program. The transition from a sleepless, desert metropolis to America’s heartland was stark, however Makkouk mentioned the principle cause she had been accepted into Iowa’s rigorous Ph.D. program was due to the expertise she gained working with nanoparticles in Madsen’s lab at UNLV.
After ending her graduate research, Makkouk discovered herself out West once more, this time in a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford. She labored with just a few pharmaceutical start-up firms to generate immunotherapy remedies earlier than transitioning to the medical biomarker subject.
“To see your college students succeed — it’s one thing all of us attempt for,” Madsen mentioned of Makkouk. “Realizing Amani and seeing her motivation, I had a sense that she was going to perform one thing large.”
Though she left UNLV greater than a decade in the past, Makkouk seems again fondly on the college that helped set her on the course for her eventual aim: discovering a treatment for most cancers.
