Anil Bidkar, PhD, receives DoD Early Investigator Research Award for Prostate Cancer Research

Anil Bidkar, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of radiology and biomedical imaging, has received the Department of Defense (DoD) Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) Early Investigator Research Award. This award provides funding for early-career researchers to work as Principal Investigators pursuing prostate cancer-focused research opportunities under the guidance of designated mentors. Dr. Bidkar's mentors for this funding are Robert Flavell, MD, PhD, Bin Liu, PhD, and Henry Vanbrocklin, PhD.

With this award, Dr. Bidkar will receive $484,500 to study the combination therapy of the CD46 targeted Actinium-225 labeled antibody and antibody-drug conjugate, conducted with mouse models. This novel biomarker CD46 and the therapeutic strategy to target it were developed recently by Dr. Flavell’s lab. This approach aims to help patients with low or no PSMA on their tumor tissue. Preliminary studies show this combination of therapies results in the two molecules responding synergistically at lower doses than their individual responses. 

Additional experiments have been planned to confirm these initial results using different tumor models, such as tumors collected from patients and those tumors spreading (metastasizing) to other body organs. The planned research will use mouse models for toxicity studies of individual drugs and study the effect of combination therapies in advanced diseases to discover ways to improve anti-cancer response in men with advanced or metastatic tumors. 

The results of these studies will lay a strong foundation for the development of therapy for men with prostate cancer.