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DEPARTMENT OF UROLOGY - RESEARCH

 

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES FOR UNDERGRADUATE AND MEDICAL STUDENTS

  The Department of Urology has a variety of research opportunities for undergraduates planning a career in basic research or medicine as well as for medical students interested in exploring Urology as a possible specialty. The basic research projects are conducted in the Jim & Eilleen Dicke Research laboratory located on the ground floor of the Wood Research Tower. Basic research projects are directed by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, PhD, a principal investigator. For interested students we are able to provide clinical exposure to Urology. The department also has an active clinical research program investigating outcomes and treatment efficacies for a variety of urologic problems. Appropriate clinical research opportunities for medical students are frequently available.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, PhD

Prostate Cancer & its Prevention: The research focuses on identification of novel targets and surrogate biomarkers for early detection and prognosis of prostate cancer. The other component of our research is cancer chemoprevention, a means of cancer control in which the occurrence of clinical cancer can be prevented, slowed or reversed by the administration of one or more synthetic or naturally occurring biologic compounds. We are using all relevant models of prostate cancer ranging from cell culture, transgenic mouse models and human prostate tissue to conduct our studies. Our current interest is on diet-based bio-active agents which include apigenin, a common plant flavonoid, green tea polyphenols, tocotrienol-rich fraction from palm oil, chamomile, and D-limonene, a monoterpene found in citrus fruits and citrus peel oil as putative agents for prostate cancer chemoprevention.
Shukla S, MacLennan GT, Marengo SR, Seftel AD, Resnick MI, and Gupta S: Genetic abnormalities in prostate cancer. Current Genomics 5: 67-83, 2004.
Shukla S and Gupta S: Dietary agents in chemoprevention of prostate cancer. Nutrition and Cancer 53:18-32, 2005.
Prostatitis: Chronic nonbacterial prostatitis is responsible for more visits to physicians than either prostate cancer or BPH. Recent studies have suggested that chronic prostatic inflammation may foster the development of prostate cancer. Despite its prevalence, almost nothing is known about the disease's etiology or the nature of the inflammatory response. To address this, we are using animal models of prostatitis, human prostate specimens and flow cytometry to determine the functional lymphocyte subsets participating in prostatic inflammation.
MacLennan GT, Eisenberg R, Fleshman RL, Taylor JM, Fu P, Resnick MI, Gupta S: The influence of chronic inflammation in prostatic carcinogenesis: a 5-year followup study. J Urol. 176:1012-6, 2006.
Vykhovanets EV, Resnick MI, MacLennan GT, Gupta S: Experimental rodent models of prostatitis: limitations and potential. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis. 10:15-29, 2007.