A new study by a team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame provides an important new insight into how cancer cells are able to avoid the cell death process. The findings may reveal a novel chemotherapeutic approach to prevent the spread of cancers.

Metastasis, the spread of cancer from one organ to other parts of the body, relies on cancer cells’ ability to evade a cell death process called anoikis, according to Zachary T. Schafer, Coleman Assistant Professor of Cancer Biology at Notre Dame. Metastasizing cancer cells are able to block anoikis, which normally results from detachment from the extracellular matrix. However, Schafer notes that the molecular mechanisms that cancer cells detached from the extracellular matrix use to survive have not been well understood.

Dr. Basar Bilgicer has received a Leukemia Research Foundation Award.

This is a one-year, $100k grant

for his work "Designer Nanoparticles to Target Multiple Myeloma and Its Microenvironment."

Norman Dovichi, the Grace-Rupley Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has received the 2013 ANACHEM Award from the Association of Analytical Chemistry (ANACHEM) for his achievements as an analytical chemist and educator.