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Office: 803
434-3925
Fax: 803 733 3192
E-mail:
mwargovich
@gw.mp.med.sc.edu
Department of Pathology and Microbiology, University
of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, SC 29208
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Research in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Wargovich
focuses on the broad discipline of cancer chemoprevention with a particular
emphasis on colon cancer. Cancer chemoprevention is a discipline of cancer
research in which natural and synthetic compounds are exploited to prevent
cancer via specific mechanisms.
Current research in the laboratory is supported by two NIH grants. In the first
project we are examining the molecular mechanisms of how polyphenolic
antioxidants in green tea correct corrupted cell signaling pathways in cultured
human colon cancer cell lines. We are using the APCMin mouse model to examine
how green tea influences the in vivo growth of colon cancer as well as
xenografts of human colon cancers. We are also interested in how commonly used
complementary and alternative medicines (ginkgo and ginseng) act as mitigants on
nitric-oxide in models of ulcerative colitis.
In another major project for the lag, we are exploring traditional medicinal
plants from West Africa in an effort to discover natural sources of inhibition
of the COX-2 enzyme, a critical target for the prevention of colon cancer. We
are working on the hypothesis that long-term, sub-acute pro-inflammatory
processes raise the risk for colon cancer ( and other important diseases) and
how natural products might intervene to prevent these diseases.
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A picture of early colon neoplasia - aberrant crypt
foci
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Learn about the research of other faculty
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