UC physician researcher Katelyn Melgar named Conquer Cancer Young Investigator
Experience gained in UC’s Physician Scientist Training Program broadened skill set
The University of Cincinnati Cancer Center’s Katelyn Melgar has received a $50,000 Conquer Cancer Young Investigator Award to continue her bench-to-bedside research looking to overcome drug resistance in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
What is the research focus?
CLL is a slow-growing blood cancer seen in adults, and recently developed medications called BTK degraders have shown promise as a new treatment.
“We have a couple of the BTK degrader trials open here at UC, and they’re showing amazing results so far in patients with CLL,” said Melgar, MD, PhD, a Cancer Center physician scientist and instructor in the Department of Internal Medicine in UC’s College of Medicine. “We are always worried about when these drugs will stop working, because it's kind of inevitable that at some point, the cancer is going to outsmart the drug in some way.”
Melgar is proactively collecting blood samples from patients treated with the new drugs whose cancer has returned and then sequencing the cancer cells’ genetic information for any mutations that could be causing the cells to evade treatment.
This work is accelerated due to the intentional, comprehensive design of the Blood Cancer Healing Center. Melgar sees patients in the clinic, and blood samples from these patients are only a short elevator ride away from the Leukemia and Drug Development Lab, where she conducts her research.
I just felt like the research was more meaningful when I knew it had a direct application to people I was treating.
Katelyn Melgar, MD, PhD
“It’s especially important to have patient samples for any type of science research because getting samples directly from humans is going to provide a lot more accuracy compared to doing things in animal models or growing cells in culture,” Melgar explained. “Because CLL is a slow-growing cancer, the cell lines that we use are not the best representation of the cancer, so having access directly to patient samples is extremely important.”
Gaining experience both in the clinic and in the lab is a hallmark of UC’s Physician Scientist Training Program. Melgar said she was initially drawn to laboratory research only but developed a passion for interacting with patients in the clinic.
“I just felt like the research was more meaningful when I knew it had a direct application to people I was treating,” she said. “Knowledge of human biology from my medical training really helps drive the research as well, and it just meshes well together.”
Melgar currently spends one day a week in the clinic seeing patients and four days in the lab.
“I’m finally at the portion of my training in the physician scientist track where I’m doing both research and patient care at the same time, which has always been the goal,” she said. “I hope that one day my research will help direct new treatments for patients with CLL like the ones I’m seeing in the clinic.”
How will the grant help move the research forward?
Melgar said it is motivating to see patients in the clinic and then test those same patients' samples in the lab to help work toward new treatments. Photo provided.
The Young Investigator Award is designed to aid promising young physicians as they continue their research during the final years of their training in support of a transition to a faculty appointment.
The grant will help fund the processing and storing of patient samples and equipment purchases for sequencing the samples, and Melgar said it also provided connection and camaraderie with the dozens of other awardees who met together at American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual conference in May.
“It was so inspiring to meet other people in my same kind of career phase, and see how excited they are to do their research, hopefully make a big impact on treating people with cancer and help them live longer,” she said. “It helped create this great community of like-minded people.”
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Featured photo at top of the outside of the Blood Cancer Healing Center. Photo/Andrew HIgley/UC Marketing + Brand.
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