Faculty

Our research focuses on understanding the functional relationship between autophagy (“self-eating”) and cell death signaling in brain tumor cells. Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common malignant primary tumor of the central nervous system and remains very difficult to treat. These tumors arise from astrocytes and have many biological characteristics that allow them to evade cell death. We utilize a range of human cancer cell types and genetically modified mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) to determine how cells use autophagy as a survival response to stress. Our research interests are closely aligned with the drug discovery efforts in the College of Pharmacy and we study a number of unique compounds that have arisen in nature in diverse and unusual ecosystems. The main projects in the Ishmael laboratory are currently centered around structures with anticancer potential that were discovered by Drs. Kerry McPhail and Taifo Mahmud at collection sites in Panama, South Africa, Indonesia and the Red Sea.  By working at the interface of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology we seek to understand the potential of these naturally occurring structures to modulate autophagy, inhibit cellular proliferation and induce apoptotic or alternate modes of cancer cell death.  Our long-term goal is to characterize new chemical entities with the potential to inspire drug development for and identify new cellular targets for cancer chemotherapy.