Director, Eppley Institute
Director, UNMC Eppley Cancer Center
Professor of Oncology
B.A. - University of
Rochester, Chemistry
M.D., Ph.D. - Case Western
Reserve University, Pharmacology
Bio
Kenneth H. Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., became the
director of the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center and the Eppley Institute for Research
in Cancer and Allied Diseases in August 1999. The UNMC Eppley Cancer Center,
created in 1983, is an NCI-designated clinical cancer center, uniting cancer
researchers throughout the UNMC campus into a larger single entity. The Eppley
Institute was founded in 1961. Dr. Cowan is the sixth director in the
institute’s 40 year history. The Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and
Allied Diseases is a division of the University of Nebraska Medical Center with
27 basic science laboratories headed by principal investigators focused on
cancer research.
Prior to this, since completing his residency training at Texas Southwestern
Affiliated Hospitals in Dallas, Dr. Cowan spent 21 years in the Public Health
Service at the National Cancer Institute. Since 1988, he served as Chief of the
Medical Breast Cancer Section, Medicine Branch. In his NCI position, he was
responsible for overseeing laboratory researchers and clinical staff involved in
basic and clinical research in breast cancer.
A New York City native, Dr. Cowan earned his undergraduate degree at the
University of Rochester in Rochester, NY, and his medical and doctorate
degrees from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He has
authored more than 240
papers for scientific journals and has been an invited guest lecturer at
numerous scientific conferences.
Research Interests
Our laboratory is interested in understanding the role of tumor suppressor genes in the development of human tumors. We have constructed a series of recombinant viral vectors to study the effects of overexpression of tumor suppressor genes on the biology of breast cancer and for use in gene therapy of human tumors. Recombinant non-replicating adenoviral vectors are useful for these studies for several reasons; 1) human breast cancer cells (as well as many other normal and transformed human cell lines) contain high levels of adenoviral receptors and are readily infected by adenoviral vectors; 2) adenoviral vectors infect both replicating and quiescent cells; and 3) high levels of intracellular transgene expression is detected within 12 hours following infection with adenoviral vectors.
We have constructed a series of adenoviral vectors, including a vector that expresses the wild type breast cancer tumor suppressor gene BRCA1, and have studied the effects of tumor suppressor gene overexpression on cell cycle regulation and apoptosis in human breast cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo.
Our laboratory has also been involved in identifying the mechanisms associated with development of multi-drug resistance and the regulation of expression of drug resistance genes in human tumor cells. We have isolated a series of drug resistant human breast cancer cell lines, studied their pharmacological characteristics, and identified the genes associated with resistance in each cell line. We are also examining the ability to transfer drug resistance genes into hematopoietic stem cells in clinical trials in patients with breast cancer patients treated with high dose chemotherapy and hematopoietic stem cell rescue.. The goal of these studies is to determine whether patients can be reconstituted long term with gene modified hematopoietic cells and whether the expression of drug resistance genes in hematopoietic progenitor cells will permit treatment with higher doses of chemotherapy and overcome clinical drug resistance in patients with breast cancer.
- Phone: (402) 559-4238
Fax: (402) 559-4652
E-Mail: Ken Cowan