Shelton Earp, MD

About Shelton Earp, MD

Application of Nanotechnology to Novel Models of Prostate Cancer—Nanoscale Fabrication Technology May Provide New Modeling Capabilities and Therapies to Arrest Lethal PCa Progression
This program has discovered that a molecule named Ack1 can cause poorly-tumorigenic prostate cancer cells to become highly lethal. In addition, it has developed an innovative nanoparticle drug delivery technology using the same stepped layering and etch process used in the fabrication of today’s nanoscale semiconductors and microprocessors. The nanotherapy involves delivery of drugs in nanoscale discs that look like hockey pucks and are flexible like red blood cells as they circulate through capillaries. Inhibitors of Ack1 will be delivered to novel models of prostate cancer to credential the Ack1 target for discovery of new therapies for prostate cancer. Ultimately, it is hoped that Ack1 inhibitors delivered by flexile nanodiscs would be able to shut down the lethal progression of prostate cancer cells.

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