As a professor in the department of Radiation Medicine, Division of Radiation Biology at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center (LCCC), Georgetown University, for over 30 years, my research interests are focused on understanding mechanisms underlying cancer progression to therapy with the goal of identifying and developing therapeutic strategies to improve clinical outcomes. The overarching research goal is to understand mechanisms of radiation sensitivity and resistance, chromatin regulation in DNA damage response and repair, developing radiation therapeutic sensitizers/protectors, and health disparity: African American men with prostate cancer in collaboration with Radiation Oncology ad Urology clinicians. Moreover, as PI or Co-Investigator on several previous NIH, DOD, and privately funded grants, I laid the groundwork for developing novel HDAC inhibitors designed to target cancer cell growth and for measuring their pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in vitro and in vivo. Through the discovery of small molecules to modify the cellular responses to genotoxic reagents, I have successfully produced a number of peer-reviewed publications and several composition matter patents for novel HDAC inhibitors with cancer cell growth modulating properties. Therefore, the expertise with a strong record of research publications in the fields of both radiation and cancer biological research provides me with the multi-disciplinary background.
Mira Jung, PhD, Professor