Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

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Research: Our cancer research

Researchers in SBP's NCI-designated Cancer Center study normal cellular processes and what causes them to go awry. They are interested in understanding how cancer cells fail to repair damaged DNA, reproduce without restraint, form tumors, colonize other tissues in the body and ignore signals telling them to stop proliferating and start self-destructing.

The impact on your health

Cancer Center scientists have created two FDA-approved cancer drugs and five experimental therapies currently in clinical trials. These include targeting technologies that deliver drugs specifically to a tumor and drugs that trick cancer cells into committing suicide. Clinical trials are also underway to test a technique that uses stem cells to deliver chemotherapeutics to brain tumors. Read More
Children's Health: Understanding children's health

Researchers in Sanford Children’s Health Research Center are working to uncover the molecular basis of several rare, inherited genetic diseases. Others study type 1 diabetes or cardiac and skeletal muscle disorders. Our scientists are also pioneering microRNA-based techniques to study and treat human disease.

Promising treatments

SBP researchers have helped develop the first treatments for several rare diseases affecting children, such as hypophosphatasia and congenital disorders of glycosylation. Scientists in this center have also created a protective coating for the insulin-producing cells that are destroyed by the immune system in type 1 diabetes. Read More
Metabolic Diseases: Metabolic diseases

Researchers in the Center for Metabolic Origins of Disease, located in Lake Nona, Orlando, are investigating the pathophysiology of common metabolic diseases (such as obesity) and the cardiovascular complications they cause. This multi-disciplinary group studies the control of metabolism, including the complex interactions between cells and organs that influence caloric intake and energy balance.

Improving human health

Researchers in this center have teamed up with Florida Hospital, the Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes, and a major pharmaceutical company to identify obesity-related biomarkers and other targets with therapeutic potential. Read More
Infectious & Inflammatory Diseases: Infection and inflammation

Researchers in the Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center study the relationship between the human body and the bacteria that live within it. They take a system-wide appreciation of what’s happening in a cell or organism and develop the computing and organizational power to make sense of it all.

Improving human health

Scientists in this center study the cells responsible for inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel diseases, and discovered a human gene variant that prompts the immune system to attack insulin-producing cells, causing type 1 diabetes. Read More
Neuroscience & Aging: Neuroscience and aging

Neuroscience may be the yin to cancer’s yang. If we can learn how to kill treatment-resistant cancer cells, we can learn how to protect cells in the brain. Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, and cancer, are both diseases of aging. Scientists at SBP are advancing the understanding of degenerative diseases, as well as the processes of normal aging.

Improving human health

Discoveries made by scientists in the Center have paved the way for development of a drug for Alzheimer's that, for the first time, gets to the root of the problem, possibly preventing brain cell death rather than merely masking symptoms caused by loss of these cells. Numerous other strategies are being developed for either protecting cells or replacing cells lost due to degenerative diseases of the brain and other organs. Read More
Translational Research: From the lab bench

The Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes serves as a bridge between basic discovery research and patient-oriented research. It binds the strengths of Florida Hospital’s large patient base and clinical research expertise with SBP's basic science and advanced research technologies in metabolomics, genomics and proteomics.

To the bedside

The TRI is expected to hasten the discovery and development of new approaches to diagnose, prevent, and treat diabetes, obesity and their cardiovascular complications. One key aim is to produce unique insights into the sub-classifications of diabetes, thus promoting the advent of personalized disease therapies. Read More
Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine: Stem cell research

The Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine approaches disease from the perspective that degeneration, malformations, and cancer are abnormalities in biological development and homeostasis. The Center explores therapies that invoke and harness developmental processes, such as cell repair mechanisms, protection, molecular and cellular manipulation, and drugs that drive direct these processes.

Stem cell promise

Stem cells are distinguished by their ability to differentiate into many types of cells in the body and to self-replicate indefinitely. Their very nature has intrigued scientists who foresee a day when stem cells could be used to replace diseased and injured tissue in patients, to screen and test new drugs, and to learn more about our fundamental biology. Read More
Shared Resources: Shared resources

The Institute provides scientists with access to state-of-the-art instrumentation through a network of over 30 technology cores. This infrastructure supports scientists with advanced technologies that otherwise would be impossible for one lab to afford. Shared Resources also offers investigators the expertise to help design and interpret their experiments and if desired, train their lab staff to self-operate the advanced equipment.

An infrastructure for success

Scientists have used advanced technologies to empower their research and accelerate their discoveries. Investigators use metabolomics to profile patient samples to gain insight about how diseases develop differently between individuals. Other technologies such as genomics and proteomics aid in identifying new biomarkers that may allow for more precise and earlier diagnosis. Read More
Nanomedicine: Turning an innovation...

The Office of Technology Management and Commercialization helps bring biomedical research innovations to the marketplace as new therapies. Our business development team is also actively engaged in developing relationships with potential partners and funding organizations for the advancement of shared research initiatives.

…into a life-saving product

Since the Institute’s founding in 1976, our research has led to more than 600 patents and 90 license agreements with strategic partners. We are proud to partner with Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (a division of Johnson & Johnson), Pfizer, and Takeda to advance our discoveries to the clinical research stage more quickly. Read More
Chemical Genomics: Chemical genomics

Where do new medicines come from? SBP is bridging the gap between basic research carried out in academic research laboratories and FDA approval of new medicines. The Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics (Prebys Center) at SBP screens chemical compounds by the millions to find the few that could potentially be developed into new medicines.

Drug discovery

In the past, most new drugs and therapies came from the laboratories of pharmaceutical companies. In a major shift, the early discovery work is moving into academic research labs with strong collaborative ties to industry. SBP is working with Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Takeda Pharmaceuticals among others to get new drugs into the pipeline for the diseases where the need is greatest. Read More

Research
Cancer
Children's Health
Metabolic Disease
Infectious &
Inflammatory Diseases
Neuroscience
& Aging

Chemical Genomics
& Drug Discovery
Commercialization
Shared Resources
Stem Cells &
Regenerative Medicine
Translational Research
Technology

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SBP Science News

Scientists discover potential avenue to early treatment for type 2 diabetes

August 08, 2016

Gene-regulating protein controls fat storage and insulin sensitivity in muscleRead More
Breakthrough in understanding how stem cells become specialized

August 04, 2016

Factor that maintains stem-ness also primes genes involved in differentiationRead More
Research points to possible target to stop cancer stem cells

July 28, 2016

Turning off factors involved in making certain proteins could starve cancer stem c...Read More
New potential way to slow advance of Alzheimer’s

July 27, 2016

Research could lead to treatments that reduce the generation of toxic proteins in ...Read More

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SBP

Paper of the Week

Protein kinase A can block EphA2 receptor-mediated cell repulsion by increasing EphA2 S897 phosphorylation

Published online July 6, 2016

Antonio Barquilla @ Elena Pasquale Lab