Lots of people have big ideas – and the prevention and better treatment
of cancer is among the biggest – but very few ever see those ideas
realized. Even less see them grow in one of the worst economic
downturns since the Great Depression.
But
physiologist Dr. Julia Carter, a New England transplant to Northern
Kentucky, isn't your average researcher. Carter founded the
Wood Hudson Cancer Research Laboratory
in 1981 in Cleveland. She moved the research to Northern Kentucky when
her husband took a job with St. Elizabeth Medical Center and has been
here ever since.
In early March the lab, which houses 700,000
tissue research samples, broke ground on a 3,500-sq. ft. addition. The
addition will house those samples, which include tumors from Cincinnati
area cancer patients, in a temperature controlled environment.
"We
have the kind of tissue bank that you usually find in large research
hospitals," Carter told Thrive on a recent tour of the facility. The
tiny samples come from St. Elizabeth Medical Lab patients and are
encased in wax. Now they're in numbered boxes piled on top of each
other in several rooms throughout the lab.
The new addition
which Carter is considering, would expand the facility up to 5,890
square feet and will help make the research more efficient and modern.
"By 2010 we hope to have an electronic database of all cancer tissues," Carter said.
The
lab has four ongoing goals: development of new technology, upgrading
its facilities, building a new addition and implementing the use of
informatics in its research. Though the lab is a non-profit
organization, Carter's business mind plays a key role in keeping the
center in operation.
The LabWood
Hudson employs five scientists and is working to make room for five
more in the next few years. It is one of only 82 non-profit biomedical
research hospitals in the country.
Wood Hudson sits in an old
school house in the residential section of Newport, Northern Kentucky
on Isabella Street. From the outside it seems unimpressive. Stuffed
among houses along the crowded street, it's easy to miss. But dig a
little deeper and you start to see that old school house differently.
The
lab and Carter personally own the buildings and residences along the
block surrounding the facility. She moved Wood Hudson there from a
smaller space in Covington, Northern Kentucky that she outgrew in the
late 1980s. Like the school building, the houses around it needed work.
So the homes were rehabbed and are rented out as a source of income to
fund the basics of the lab.
"That's how we keep the lights on," Carter says.
She
continues, "Ninety-nine percent of expenditures go to cancer research
and that's one way we are able to do that." The lab relies on donations
and grants to pay for its research, including top notch machinery for
the further study of cervical, colon, lung and ovarian cancers. They
also have a dedicated network of volunteers who do everything from
stuffing envelopes to operating their web site to organizing
fundraisers.
The
lab itself also remains in a partially rehabbed state. It still very
much has some remnants from its school days including the outline of an
auditorium in an upstairs meeting space. To help defray costs in its
early days, Carter rented out part of the building to a day care. But
the work that goes on in those rooms today is anything but old school.
Top research projects according to the center include:
- Investigation into the mechanisms of chemoprevention of breast cancer in a rodent model
- Identification of markers of susceptibility to a second breast cancer in women
- Validation of a new screening method for early detection of human colorectal cancer
- The predictive significance of cell death and cell proliferation in progression of prostate cancer
- The
study of the cancer inducing and promoting effects of environmental
pollutants, in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, including drinking water chemicals and by-products of water
disinfection, plasticizers, and metabolites of trichloroethylene
This
April, Carter and fellow researchers Drs. James Schaeper, Larry
Douglass, and Diana Nardini, will present reports on recent research
findings on their ongoing research, including findings related to
advanced prostate cancers at the annual meeting of the American
Association for Cancer Research.
All this goes toward one overarching goal: working to make research pay off in the real world.
"We're
doing translational research, tying together advances. It's basic
research from lab to the patient bedside. We're making discoveries that
can make an impact on patient care," Carter said.
Commitment to Northern KentuckyWood
Hudson has a strong commitment to fostering educational opportunities
for local students and in attracting and retraining strong cancer
researchers in Northern Kentucky.
All
the lab's scientists hail from the region and attended area colleges
including Northern Kentucky University, Thomas More and University of
Cincinnati. Wood Hudson also offers student research grants to students
from area colleges. Many students who live in the area but attend
colleges far away come to the lab during the summer to get lab
experience. In fact, 208 students from 34 different colleges and
universities have worked at the lab through internship programs with
many of them remaining in Northern Kentucky following their
internships, Carter said.
"Our goal is to have the best scientists in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky right here," she says.
Feoshia
Henderson is a former Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky daily news
reporter. She now runs her own freelance writing business and blogs
about the Cincinnati suburbs at www.cincyburb.blogspot.com.
Photos:
Dr. Julia Carter, Founder Wood Hudson Cancer Research Center
Wood Hudson Cancer Research Samples
Wood Hudson Cancer Research technician in lab
Dr. Julie Carter working
Photography: Amber Kersley
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