August 2020 eNews

The Conquest of Cancer

Through Research

Check out a new video featuring three of our Summer 2020 Undergraduate Research Education Program (UREP) students.  Thank you to Norman Chan for producing this video.  

Thanks to Dr. Julia Carter, Dr. Larry Douglass, Dr. Ron Snyder, and Professor Diane Fritz for successfully executing summer UREP.

My project this summer involved investigating the associations between colorectal cancer (CRC), obesity, and the gut microbiome. I hypothesized that the microbes living in the colons of CRC and obesity patients are similar to each other. I designed my project to use the 16S rRNA sequence in bacterial genomes to identify what kind of bacteria are present in the feces and biopsies from CRC, obese, and healthy individuals. If support for my hypothesis is found, the gut microbes living in obese individuals may partly explain why obesity increases one’s risk for CRC. More importantly, the data could validate a link between increasing obesity rates in the past few decades and the recent rise in early-onset CRC cases that occur in individuals under the age of 50 who don’t receive CRC screenings. Hopefully in the coming years, new knowledge of the gut microbiome in diseased versus healthy states can be used to prevent and treat conditions such as obesity and CRC by use of prebiotics, probiotics, and antibiotics to restore the healthy bacteria balance in the gut.

Every summer for the past 20 years, the Ft. Thomas Corvette Club has hosted a car show to benefit Wood Hudson Cancer Research.  This year, the car show was cancelled for the health and safety of the community.

With deep gratitude, Wood Hudson thanks all those who responded to a joint letter from Wood Hudson and the Ft. Thomas Corvette Club asking for a donation in spite of the pandemic.  Your generosity amazes us.  We hope to see you at the car show next August!  

Although Cincinnati's Flying Pig Marathon was canceled in May and now in October also, we have learned that the raffle is still going to happen!  Tickets may be purchased through October 10, and the raffle will take place on October 11.

When you buy a $5 ticket, the total of that $5 goes directly to Wood Hudson and cancer research, and if your ticket is drawn, you will win $5000 for yourself and $5000 for Wood Hudson.  Whether you buy 1 ticket or 100, you can feel good knowing there is no overhead to the raffle, and Wood Hudson very efficiently uses 98 cents of every dollar directly for its cancer research and education programs.  And who knows but your ticket may win!  Think of that!  Buy tickets (or adopt a pig) HERE.