That work will continue and expand at UofL thanks to $11.5 million in new funding from the National Institutes of Health. The funding will support continuing research in the CCII to investigate therapies that activate the immune system against cancer and to train the next generation of cancer researchers and oncologists.

Since its launch, the CCII has helped four young researchers obtain independent federal funding and doubled the immune-oncology faculty at UofL from 10 to 20 members. The center’s faculty and research facilities also support highly successful clinical trial program.

“The power and impact of our clinical and translational research in cancer immunotherapy are undeniable. This work provides hope for people facing a cancer diagnosis,” said UofL President Gerry Bradley. “I am grateful to our researchers and clinicians who devote their careers to advancing innovative therapies that benefit cancer patients in Kentucky and beyond and I am excited to see what the next phase brings.” ����

The CCII was created with an initial five-year Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (CoBRE) grant of $11.5 million in 2020. The new $11.5 million CoBRE grant announced today will support the center’s work for an additional five years.

An essential component of the CCII’s mission is translating research into the clinical realm, making UofL Health an essential part of its work. CCII supports and is supported by Brown Cancer Center.

“UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center has been developing novel immunotherapies since the early 2000s and our collaboration with UofL’s research and educational programs has translated into lives saved not only in our region but also throughout the country,” said Jason Smith, chief executive officer of UofL Health. “This grant highlights the advantage of academic health care. We are able to leverage life-changing research from the University of Louisville and elsewhere, and put it to work to save and improve the lives of our patients.”

UofL and UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center are leaders in translating scientific discoveries to patient care and conducting clinical trials that bring new therapies to patients and improve chances of recovery for patients. Brown Cancer Center has led multiple clinical trials of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) therapy, and in 2024, the cellular therapy was for metastatic melanoma.

“The UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center has been a leader and innovator when it comes to novel therapies like TILs,” said Jason Chesney, director of Brown Cancer Center and . “We started offering TILs in clinical trials back in 2016. We have seen many patients who were told elsewhere that they had no other options, but they’ve come to us, and their lives have been extended for years. This grant has allowed us to continue this research so more of our patients can make it to weddings, graduations and meet their grandchildren.”

Julie Reynolds, 69, was the first patient treated with commercial TILs for metastatic melanoma after its FDA approval in February 2024. The retired teacher and Indiana resident was treated at Brown Cancer Center with TILs therapy in June 2024 and is alive and well today.

“The clinical trials of TILs that were conducted by Dr. Chesney at UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center led to the FDA approval of TILs last year which in turn led to me being alive so that I can enjoy spending more time with my family,” Reynolds said.

Training the next generation of investigators

One key goal of CoBRE programs is to train talented young investigators to become the next generation of research leaders. At CCII, young investigators benefit from project grants and mentoring by senior investigators, supported by CoBRE funding. All four of the young investigators who led projects under the first round of center funding have now obtained major federal funding of their own, including:

• Chuanlin Ding
• Qingsheng Li
• Corey Watson
• Kavitha Yaddanapudi

“When we launched this center, our mission was ambitious: to build a vibrant community of scientists who could bridge fundamental immunology with translational and clinical research, ultimately bringing new hope to patients with cancer,” said Jun Yan, director of the CCII. “Through this next phase, we will continue to provide a nurturing environment where junior investigators can develop cutting-edge research programs, gain access to advanced technologies and receive the mentorship and resources they need to succeed.”

As a first-round project leader in the program, Yaddanapudi’s translational research supported the clinical immunotherapy program at Brown Cancer Center. She investigated immune checkpoint inhibitor resistance in lung cancer patients to improve treatment and worked with the TILs clinical trial team. Now, Yaddanapudi is a mentor for other young investigators in CCII as they build their research programs.

Junior investigators currently receiving support and training include:

• Sharmila Nair
• Jian Zheng
• Joseph Chen

The center also houses research instruments in its Functional Immunomics Core facility. The equipment supports research by the CCII faculty, the junior researchers and other investigators at the university. It houses a Helios CyTOF instrument and a Hyperion Imaging Mass Cytometry, among other resources. To date, investigators within the program have secured approximately $33 million in research grants made possible by the core.

As part of its next phase, the CCII plans to add a tumor organoid fragment culture platform. The platform uses human tumor specimens and mimics the human body environment for more precise testing.

View photos from the announcement on .

Support of TILs cell therapy

Half of this incredible investment in the Brown Cancer Center, $1.5 million, supports the TILs program by providing funding for research staff, supplies and faculty time dedicated to clinical trials. The goal is to increase capacity and access for participants in clinical trials for TILs and other immunotherapies.

The Brown Cancer Center is a lead enrolling center in TILs trials and has had patients travel to Louisville from all over the United States. The success of the program is directly related to the Gibbs Foundation initial investment of $1.5 million in 2022.

This philanthropic investment follows FDA approval of the cell product AMTAGVI (lifileucel), developed by Iovance Biotherapeutics for the treatment of melanoma patients. The Brown Cancer Center participated in these clinical trials leading to this FDA approval and is one of the first authorized treatment centers.

Although the initial FDA approval is specific to metastatic melanoma, the expansion of this cellular therapy to other cancers is being tested at Brown Cancer Center and elsewhere with a goal to obtain FDA approval in several solid tumor types in the future. Read more on the FDA approval in the .

Creation of Gibbs Pancreatic Cancer Research Program

Through $1.5 million over three years, the Gibbs Pancreatic Cancer Research Program will be created at the University of Louisville to support efforts in testing novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Five $50,000 pilot grants will be awarded to researchers each year for the development of novel therapeutics to treat pancreatic cancer and increase clinical trials dedicated to treating pancreatic cancer. This center will also provide funding for trial research staff and faculty time dedicated to these projects.

“The Gibbs Foundation is thrilled to be continuing our partnership with the Brown Cancer Center and the fight against cancer. Based on the positive outcomes of so many patients who have been through the TILs program, it is a battle we are winning,” said executive director of the Gibbs Foundation Hannah Roquet. “The creation of the Gibbs Pancreatic Cancer Research Program is especially meaningful as it continues the legacy of our founder, George Gibbs, who fought his own battle valiantly, and provides the opportunity for groundbreaking research in a cancer that has taken the lives of many too quickly and without warning. ��We are looking forward to the future of this very special program.”

The Gibbs Foundation, Inc. was established in 2014 by George Gibbs of Louisville who died in 2022 of pancreatic cancer at age 87. The Gibbs Foundation previously supported health research at UofL through gifts of more than $2.5 million to create and expand the��Gibbs Lung Research Program.

“The Brown Cancer Center has one goal – to end cancer,” said Jason Chesney, chief administrative officer and director of the Brown Cancer Center, who also serves as chief of the Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology at the UofL School of Medicine. “As more cancer centers across the country begin to implement TILs programs, we will be saving more lives. Through the philanthropy of the Gibbs Foundation, we continue to be one step closer to achieving this goal. Their dedication to finding a cure and increasing access to novel therapeutics is astounding.”

More information on TILs therapy and UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center is available at .

Arsenic is highly poisonous and occurs naturally in some rocks and soil. As a result, of exposure is drinking contaminated water, particularly ground water from private wells. More than get their water from private wells, including many in areas of Kentucky that may be contaminated from previous coal mining.��

“What people don’t realize is that private wells and even public water supplies serving smaller numbers of people are not regulated,” said , a UofL researcher who’s been studying arsenic’s role in cancer for more than 25 years. “People using private wells for their water are on their own to test for toxic chemicals.”��

Chronic exposure to low doses of arsenic, as from drinking water, can cause a host of serious health concerns, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and several cancers, including skin, lung and bladder cancer. In high doses, arsenic can also be fatal.��

States and collaborator, , backed by two new grants from the National Institutes of Health and American Cancer Society totaling $3.6 million, are working to discover what specifically about arsenic exposure can cause and accelerate the development of those conditions. Understanding this cause and effect could help researchers and public health officials find ways to keep people safe and healthy.

States and Banerjee believe it may all come down to how arsenic binds with proteins that help the body regulate the expression of genes. When gene expression isn’t properly regulated, your cells can begin to behave abnormally, mutating and multiplying out of control and not dying when they should. In other words, they become cancer cells.��

Many proteins need zinc to do their jobs properly. When arsenic binds with these proteins instead, it takes the place zinc would normally fill. This disables these regulatory proteins and accelerates dysregulation.

Even worse, Banerjee said, is that there’s significant overlap between the communities who drink potentially contaminated well water and those who are more likely to have a zinc deficiency. If the body doesn’t have enough zinc to bind with the regulatory proteins in the first place, it can increase your risk of some of the same health concerns as arsenic exposure — including heart disease and cancer. An of the global population is zinc deficient.��

“It’s a double whammy,” said Banerjee, an assistant professor of pharmacology. “The populations we’re talking about are largely impoverished and rural, who are already more likely to be zinc deficient because they don’t have access to healthy, nutritious foods. So, you have a lack of zinc in the diet exacerbated by arsenic preventing what zinc they have from doing its job in the body.”��

There isn’t currently any medication that treats chronic arsenic exposure. However, Banerjee said, there may be a simple, over-the-counter solution — if the problem is a lack of zinc, it may be treatable with a zinc supplement. His research has shown zinc supplementation can mitigate or even regress some of the worse effects of arsenic exposure.��

“Zinc is over-the-counter, which makes it cheaper and readily accessible,” Banerjee said. “But I don’t think a lot of people are even aware of the potential danger of well water or what it can cause. We really hope this work can help those people.”

Their award-winning , named Paper of the Year by the American Journal of Physiology, sheds light on the heightened risk of kidney complications in cancer patients undergoing treatment. The study revealed that cancer itself may harm the kidneys, but that damage and scarring is intensified when patients take cisplatin, a commonly used chemotherapy drug.��

“Everything in your body is connected, from your internal systems to the medications we take,” said Andrew Orwick, lead author and recent doctoral graduate in pharmacology and toxicology.

Orwick’s doctoral research in the laboratory of researchers Leah Siskind and in collaboration with Levi Beverly, both from the and , examined the interplay of cisplatin and lung cancer, which is highly prevalent in Kentucky.

“By better understanding what those interactions are and how they happen,” he said, “we can take them into consideration and improve outcomes for the patient.”

Ultimately, that could lead to new diagnostics, more effective drugs and treatment plans that better consider the patient’s overall health and avoid or limit kidney damage.

Chronic damage to the kidneys can nausea, vomiting, fatigue, high blood pressure and even death, without transplant or dialysis. Because symptoms progress slowly, patients may not notice the condition until its advanced stages. Even so, current testing methods are difficult and invasive.

The UofL researchers think their work could help clinicians better predict not only which patients will react negatively to cisplatin and other chemotherapy drugs, but also identify potential kidney problems early. The goal is to better understand the underlying mechanisms and biomarkers, so clinicians can make more informed decisions.

“Obviously, addressing the cancer is first and foremost, but if we can do that while also preserving the patient’s overall health and feeling of health, that’s optimal,” said Siskind, a professor and senior author on the study. “The great news is that the fact that we’re even having this conversation means we’re making progress in solving cancer — we’re considering not only life, but the quality of that life.”

Siskind said the paper represents a paradigm shift in how researchers think about and treat both cancer and kidney disease. As it stands, no treatment for this form of kidney disease has made it past a phase 2 clinical trial or been approved for use in patients. This research could also help inform better drugs and experiments to fill that need.��

That innovative thinking and broad impact is likely part of why this work was selected as Paper of the Year, said Jon Klein, interim executive vice president for .

“Being selected for this honor is a massive accomplishment and underpins the immense value of the research being done by this team and across UofL,” Klein said. “This is work that truly can save and improve lives.”��

As of 2016, 70% of the line-of-duty deaths for career firefighters were caused by��UofL News caught up with Cripps to learn more about the classes he is teaching throughout Kentucky.��

UofL News: What made you want to raise awareness of occupational cancer?

James Cripps: When I was working as a career firefighter, another firefighter that came in as a high school student had gotten hired and been with our fire department for many years. After turning about 35, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and then died pretty quickly thereafter. The prevalence of cancer in firefighters is higher than your general population, but this is one of the first ones that really personally touched me and the department that I was working with at the time.

I talked to the chief at the time —��his name is Dave Goldsmith. He spurred me along to get this started because he thought my combination of being a firefighter and knowledge of cancer biology and how cancer works in the body would provide a good resource for firefighters.

UofL News: ��What should the general public know about occupational cancer?

Cripps: There are lots of different occupations that have higher risks of cancer than the general population, but I solely focus on firefighters. It is something that’s only recently been focused on in the past 10-plus years. Really, it comes about because of our increased use of petroleum-based materials — things that are derived from oil-based products of plastics and synthetics. Some of those are what they call “forever chemicals,” which are types of chemicals that get in your body and they’re there forever. These are the types of chemicals that penetrate the gear that firefighters wear, get inside their bodies, and really cause a lot of this havoc. It’s where we’re seeing increased rates of cancer, and firefighters dying earlier from very uncommon cancers.

UofL News: ��What topics do you cover in your trainings to firefighters?

Cripps: First of all, I explain to them what causes cancer, so they understand how these toxins cause cancer, and then we have mitigation strategies. So, we talk about different things, pretty much everything from what you would consider a decontamination procedure, which is something normally done when you’re exposed to hazardous materials. We also talk about limiting exposures by use of different types of new products or new types of gear that helps prevent a lot of these particles and toxins from getting to the firefighters themselves, and just some alterations of standard things that have always been done in the fire service.

Fire services is a lot like many professions, where we tend to do the same thing over and over, because that’s the way it’s always been done. Now, a lot of firefighters are seeing, a lot of younger firefighters are seeing that people are changing the way they’re doing things. Much of it is just changing behaviors.

UofL News:��What are some of the best ways to prevent occupational cancer?

Cripps: Awareness in general is probably the number one thing that helps. Being aware reinforces that they do the necessary mitigation strategies like decontamination after the fire where they try to remove as much contaminants from their skin as possible and wear the proper protective gear during the fire.

We also talk about making sure you’re having regular checkups with your doctor. I often suggest firefighters get a physical every six months. That way, if there’s any changes in bloodwork, it increases the chance of catching any type of potential issues that might be arising.

UofL News:��What does it mean to you to receive the Outstanding Community Engagement award?

Cripps: It’s a huge honor. The thing that really pushes me even more is that it gives me another opportunity to let people know of this problem because it’s not a widely known issue in the firefighter space, in general.

UofL student Nkechinyere Okorie, UofL Associate Professor of Social Work Jennifer Middleton and community engagement partner Redeemer Lutheran Church also received for their work throughout Louisville.

Any fire departments who are interested in a prevention training, can contact Cripps at james.cripps@louisville.edu or through the Colon Cancer Prevention Project

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are a promising form of cancer immunotherapy, treating cancer by activating the patient’s own immune system. While patients whose cancer responds to ICI treatment experience excellent results, a large percentage of patients fail to respond to the therapy. One of the causes of poor response is due to the presence of certain immune cells within the tumor that lead to elevated levels of adenosine, a compound found naturally in cells that causes immune suppression when present in high levels.

In the new study, the UofL researchers have enhanced the response to ICI therapy by combining it with PEGylated adenosine deaminase, a drug already approved by the FDA that reduces levels of adenosine. The study, led by Kavitha Yaddanapudi, associate professor in the Division of Immunotherapy, the Hiram C. Polk, Jr., MD Department of Surgery and researcher with the UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center, was published June 30 in . ��

Using lung, melanoma and breast cancer animal models and patient cell samples from the Brown Cancer Center biorepository, the team showed that when PEGylated adenosine deaminase is used in combination with ICI therapy, cancer-fighting T cells become more active, thereby attacking the tumor.

“This is a very exciting discovery. We found one particular mechanism by which the adenosine levels were going up in the tumors and what we can do to mitigate it,” Yaddanapudi said. “And when we combine this drug with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, we get a very nice synergistic effect in the tumor control.”

PEGylated adenosine deaminase is FDA approved for lifelong use in children with immunodeficiency to increase their immune function.

“This is a drug that has been FDA approved for use in kids for a different disease and now we are repurposing it for cancer, so we hope it can quickly go into the clinic to confirm its ability to enhance immunotherapy in patients,” Yaddanapudi said.

“If it turns out to be an effective drug, it subverts both a natural defense mechanism against inflammation (elevated adenosine) and is an already approved agent (by the FDA),” said John Eaton, professor emeritus in UofL’s Departments of Medicine and Pharmacology & Toxicology and study team member and co-author.

The discovery has the potential to further reduce deaths from cancer, according to Jason Chesney, director of the UofL Health – Brown Cancer Center.

“ICIs have markedly improved the long-term survival of certain cancer patients and have reduced cancer death rates across the world,” Chesney said. “Many cancer patients do not respond to ICIs, but Dr. Yaddanapudi’s exciting discovery opens the door for human trials combining ICIs with PEGylated adenosine deaminase to overcome this resistance.”

The UofL team, led by John O. Trent, professor of medicine and deputy director of basic and translational research at the Brown Cancer Center and Jonathan B. Chaires, professor of medicine, used the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, to define and model the longer genetic sequence structures that are believed to be the source of changes that mutate healthy cells into cancer cells.

Previous methods limited most studies to strings of fewer than 33 nucleotides. The new model developed by the UofL team enables researchers to study sequences of up to 70 nucleotides, which may provide more accurate targets for drug intervention.

By combining multiple processes, the team developed models of the G4 quadruplex structures that can be used in computer analysis to virtually test how drug and disease molecules might interact with these sites before real-world testing in the lab. This testing may aid in the discovery of drugs that could inhibit the mutation process for oncogenes c-Myc, c-Kit and k-Ras, which are associated with lung, pancreatic, colon and other cancers.

“Using integrative structural biology, we can determine that these oncogene promoters can form unique, complicated higher-order structures. We can use these structures for discovering specific inhibitors to stop gene transcription at the DNA level without nonspecific DNA-binding side effects,” Trent said. “This opens up targeting DNA by therapeutics like we target proteins.”

The research to develop the model was published in earlier this year. A profile of the team’s work has been ��and will be featured in their annual report later this year.

The team now has begun using this structural understanding and the new models in ongoing anti-cancer drug discovery work, which includes data processing using the combined power of computers located in K-12 schools across Kentucky. The dual-purpose computer grid is a partnership with Dataseam, established in 2003 and funded by the Kentucky General Assembly to provide computing infrastructure, workforce development and educational opportunities for students and staff in Kentucky school districts.

The Gibbs Foundation Inc. is giving $1.5 million to the University of Louisville over three years to fund additional research staff and faculty time dedicated to clinical trials, increasing capacity for trial participants in the tumor infiltrating lymphocytes program, or TILs.

“We are so very grateful to the Gibbs Foundation for this gift. By allowing the Brown Cancer Center to expand this clinical trial and treat more patients with this innovative therapy, it provides hope for more families who are battling cancer and advances these therapies, potentially benefitting even more cancer patients and families,” said Lori Gonzalez, UofL’s interim president.

In clinical trials at the , therapy known as tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, or TILs, has been shown to be effective in treating advanced melanoma patients, for whom the median survival is only eight months. TILs treatment involves removing one of a patient’s own tumors, preserving, activating and expanding immune cells from the tumor, then administering these immune cells into the patient. As a result of its success in melanoma patients, BCC is expanding the TILs program to test the therapy for the treatment of other cancers.

TILs patients face a long wait time due to the complex and time-consuming nature of the therapy and demands on clinical research staff. The gift from the Gibbs Foundation will allow UofL to hire additional nurses and coordinators and dedicate more of the oncologists’ research time to support TILs, a complex inpatient procedure. The gift is expected to result in the treatment of at least 25 additional patients.

“The Gibbs Foundation Board of Directors has been dramatically impressed with the success of the Brown Cancer Center’s immunotherapy work conceived and spearheaded by Dr. Jason Chesney.�� We look forward to continuing the vision of our founder George Gibbs in helping to facilitate this great effort,” said Ivan J. Schell, Gibbs Foundation board member. “The Gibbs Foundation supports the BCC and its dedicated team of physicians as they gain ground in the search for a cure for all cancers.” ��

The Gibbs Foundation Inc. was established in 2014 by George and Betty Gibbs of Louisville. George died in January of pancreatic cancer at age 87. The Gibbs Foundation currently also supports lung health research at UofL through gifts of more than $2.5 million to create and expand the lung research program.

Cancer remains one of the most difficult and deadly challenges in health care, killing more than 600,000 people each year in the U.S. and nearly 10 million worldwide. Kentuckians are affected at a higher rate than residents of any other state. BCC serves more than 26,000 cancer patients every year and has the largest early-phase cancer trials program in the region. BCC is a global leader in the clinical testing of new immunotherapies, treatments that activate the body’s immune system to fight cancer and is an early adopter of these treatments.

“My goal is to help make cancer something that people one day study in history classes instead of medical schools, and I truly believe we are getting closer to that day,” said Jason Chesney, chief of the UofL Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology and director of the Brown Cancer Center. “This gift allows us to increase the number of patients and advance this lifesaving technology.”

She replaces Karen Kayser who served as the school’s first endowed chair for the program and recently retired. BrintzenhofeSzoc shares her personal story that led to her interest in the field, along with how her growing body of research is changing clinical care in this one-on-one with UofL News.

UofL News: How did you become interested in oncology social work?

BrintzenhofeSzoc: I became interested in oncology social work when I was a teenager, even though I didn’t realize it at the time. My mother died of breast cancer when I was 13, and it was devastating to me, to my siblings (there were nine of us), and to our dad, who became our primary caregiver. We were from 6 to 25 years of age. I decided then that I wanted to work with people who were or would experience the death of a family member from cancer. I was thinking about children who had a parent with cancer and thought that if they knew how sick the parent was and could talk to someone about it, they would be more prepared to live without the parent. I wanted to be that person to whom they could talk.

I didn’t know that social workers existed when my mother died. I learned this when I was a senior in college. I took an Introduction to Social Work course as an elective, and by the end of the semester, I knew that was how I could attain my goal of working with families preparing to or grieving the death of a parent due to cancer.

I had two field placements at Virginia Commonwealth University, where I earned a Master of Social Work degree. I was placed at a settlement house in Richmond, Virginia, the first year. I worked with children from the neighborhood and the older adults who attended the daycare center. I discovered that I didn’t like working with children but loved working with older adults. My second placement was at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center in the outpatient clinic. Here I worked with adults who had cancer, mostly with a terminal disease, and their families. It was exactly what I wanted to do.

UofL News: Your research focuses on the experience of chronic or life-limiting disease on what is known as the BioPsychoSocialSpiritualSexualCulture (BPSSSC) aspects of individuals. Explain this, please.��

BrintzenhofeSzoc: After receiving my MSW, I worked at The Johns Hopkins Hospital on the AIDS inpatient unit. During this time, I was able to apply a core concept from social work to what I was doing on the unit. This was working with individuals and families using the lens of BioPsychoSocial care. This meant that I paid attention to the biological (illness-related), the psychological (emotions, quality of life, adaptation to the illness) and the social (family relationships, social support, communication) domains of each person and not just their diagnosis of AIDS. Through this work, I realized that there was more to the individual that didn’t necessarily fit into the BioPsychoSocial domains. The other domains that I became aware of, over time and with more experience, as they almost always came with when working with people with AIDS, included spirituality and religion, sexuality and cultural issues.

Throughout my career as an academic and as a researcher, I continued to explore how all six domains, rather than just three, were present and how they played a part in moving through the trajectory of the disease. I wanted social workers to include the whole person in their practice and research, so I expanded the concept to include all the domains I had identified and that which was in the literature. So, I expanded the core concept of the BioPsychoSocial domains to the BioPsychoSocialSpiritualSexualCultural (BPSSSC) domains.

I started using the expanded concept in my teaching to highlight the importance of spirituality, sexuality and culture in working with patients and families in medical settings. This was also a way to encourage students and future social workers to include these three additional domains into their assessments, treatment plans, outcomes and research. I wanted them to ask specific questions about these sometimes taboo topics. Over the past five years, I have assembled literature that demonstrates the benefit of including these domains in social work practice. I am currently working on a manuscript presenting the BPSSSC. The importance of expanding the lens of social work has become more evident over the past two years due to the COVID pandemic and the racial unrest we have all experienced.

UofL News: How have your findings translated into clinical care?��

BrintzenhofeSzoc: Following a cancer diagnosis, cancer patients and their family members experience a range of psychosocial distress. I was an integral member of a research team that explored the relationship between distress based on cancer sites, or where the cancer was in the body. We published an article in 2001 with the outcomes of this study. The dataset was made up of 4,496 patients with 14 different cancer diagnoses. This study had the largest sample size at the time and continues to be one of the largest sample sizes used in distress research. The outcome reported was that the prevalence of distress among all patients regardless of cancer site was 35.1%. The prevalence of distress differed by cancer site, ranging from 29.6% among those with gynecological cancer to 43.4% among those with lung cancer.

These findings were translated into clinical practice directly through changes made by the accrediting body of cancer centers, the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer. In 2015 the [commission] added the requirement that all new patients seen in a cancer center be screened for distress. The mandate further states that patients who report high distress be offered an appropriate intervention. Further, annual data was to be collected and reported on the number of patients screened, the percent of high distress and the number of those who were offered intervention and accepted it. This is one example of how my findings have translated into clinical care.

I also have developed and tested several measures for use with people with chronic or life-limiting diseases. This included the following measures: Healing Experiences in All Life Stressors, Profile of Adaptation to Life among medically ill populations, Satisfaction with Life Domains Scale for breast cancer and the BSI-18. Clinicians and researchers use these measures to increase our understanding of outcomes across the BPSSSC domains and those amenable to using evidence-based practices that focus on improving these outcomes.

UofL News: You have experience as a clinical social worker at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center. How did this and other work in the clinical setting influence your future research?��

BrintzenhofeSzoc: When I graduated, there were no jobs at Hopkins Oncology Center, so I applied for and was hired to work on the AIDS unit at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. It was just right for me. I was able to work with adults, mostly young adults, who had a diagnosis of AIDS. Most of the people I worked with died during my two years there. It was amazing to have the honor of working with people who knew they were dying of AIDS. I also worked with their partners, family members and friends. One of the most rewarding aspects of this job was working with the medical residents and fellows who rotated through the unit and being able to help them understand the role that psychosocial issues had on people with AIDS.

I decided the best way to learn more about this expanded lens I was working with was to go back to school for a PhD. I spent the next four years working on my doctorate at The Catholic University of America in the National School of Social Service (NCSSS). During this time, I was exposed to the literature and learned about the spiritual and religious aspects of how people experience events in their lives. Later in my career, I expanded my thinking to include the sexual and cultural domains.

After completing my PhD, I worked at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center as a clinical social worker, as a researcher in the psychosocial research program and as the social work internship program coordinator. This experience expanded my reach to include research as well as teaching. I was hired to a tenure track position at the NCSSS in 1999 and was there until 2016. I was at the University of Cincinnati from 2016 to 2021. It has been with great excitement that I join Kent School of Social Work and Family Science as a professor and Dr. Renato LaRocca Endowed Chair in Oncology Social Work. I am honored to be here.

UofL News: Describe the emphasis of UofL’s Psychosocial Oncology Social Work program?��

BrintzenhofeSzoc: Social workers make up the largest group of mental health professionals in general, in health care, and in oncology settings. Working with people with cancer, their family members and the health care teams that provide care requires knowledge about the disease, how the diagnosis and treatment negatively influence outcomes in BPSSSC, and skills based on evidence-based interventions that can provide relief. Preparing the next generation of social workers for oncology care is a major emphasis of the Psychosocial Oncology Social Work Program. We prepare social work students to work in oncology settings upon graduation and across their careers.

A second foundational aim of the program is to prepare social workers to be consumers of research and producers of research in psychosocial oncology. We work with students in our PhD program to develop their skills and knowledge in this area. A third objective of the program is to work with the community to identify and support their needs by offering continuing education, collaborating in the evaluation of and research into interventions and developing the next generation of academics in this field. The communities I am talking about include the community of oncology social workers who are at local, regional, national and international levels, people at these same levels who have experienced a diagnosis of cancer themselves or in their families, and health care providers outside of social work.

UofL News: What is your vision for the program?��

BrintzenhofeSzoc: My vision for the Psychosocial Oncology Program is to increase the number of MSW students enrolled in the specialization, which will lead to a stronger and more prepared oncology care workforce. I also want to expand the number of MSW students who, while not necessarily planning to be oncology social workers, will enroll in one or both psychosocial oncology courses.

This part of my vision is based on the knowledge that wherever social workers provide care, some of their clients, patients or residents will be dealing with chronic or life-limiting diseases. Having the background of understanding the interactions between one’s BPSSSC characteristics and health outcomes will improve care to people seen outside of cancer settings. While the courses use the lens of cancer, my goal is to help students translate this knowledge and set of skills to other groups with chronic and life-limiting diseases, disorders and conditions.

Another part of my vision is to recruit and mentor social workers working towards a PhD focusing on psychosocial oncology. Here I want to prepare the next generation of academics and researchers focusing on psychosocial oncology. Finally, I would like the Kent School of Social Work and Family Science to be known as a go-to place for help in evaluating programs and researching the effectiveness of interventions. I want this program to have the reputation of building the workforce and supporting the growth of evidence-based practice.

Fellows are selected for their “spirit of innovation” in university research, helping to generate groundbreaking inventions that have a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.

Trent is the only 2020 fellow from the state of Kentucky and the seventh from UofL. The 2020 Fellow class of 175 inventors represents 115 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes worldwide.

“It’s certainly an honor and I think it’s a testament to the drug discovery program we’ve built at the Brown Cancer Center and UofL through many collaborations and partnerships,” said Trent, a professor of medicine and the Wendell Cherry Endowed Chair in Cancer Translational Research. “The benefits of UofL are the support we’ve had for taking creative activities through intellectual property protection to the commercialization grant programs.”

As deputy director of basic and translational research at the , Trent’s Molecular Modeling Facility uses computer predictions to understand and virtually test how drug and disease molecules might interact before real-world testing in the lab.

Trent also runs the UofL partnership with , a company that created a grid that uses the processing power of thousands of computers in schools across Kentucky that Trent uses to screen potential drugs and compounds against and, most recently, . The DataseamGrid has the capability to screen millions of potential compounds against molecular targets in only a few days.

Trent holds more than 50 patents, 24 of which are U.S., and numerous licenses and option agreements with potential commercial partners. Among other accolades, he received the Apple Science Innovator Award and the 2019 , the latter awarded through the UofL Commercialization EPI-Center.

“We’re very proud of John, and all his work to create innovations that have the power to advance our health,” said Kevin Gardner, UofL’s executive vice president for research and innovation. “The fact that John and other UofL researchers before him have received this honor, the highest for academic inventors, shows our university’s commitment and leadership in research, invention and developing technologies that change and improve the way we work and live.”

Previous Fellows from UofL include Suzanne Ildstad and Kevin Walsh (2014), William Pierce (2015), Paula Bates (2016), Robert S. Keynton (2017) and Ayman El Baz (2019).

Trent’s induction, paired with Bates’ four years earlier, also makes the two of them one of only a handful of married couples to be named fellows. The duo also frequently works together, including developing the aptamer that would become the basis for innovative technologies since applied to fight and novel .

The 2020 NAI Fellow class collectively holds more than 4,700 issued U.S. patents.

Among the class are 24 recipients of National Academies��of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine honors, six recipients of American Academy of Arts & Sciences honors and two Nobel Laureates, as well as other honors and distinctions. The complete list of 2020 NAI Fellows is available .