Using multi-omics to advance ovarian cancer treatment

Every day on her way to her lab, Sammy Ferri-Borgogno, Ph.D., passed through the oncology waiting room. Seeing the faces, observing the interactions between the family members, she saw how cancer was impacting them. She was only a student at the time, but she wanted to help.

She decided to study cancer cells and what causes them to multiply and what causes them to retreat.

Using state-of-the-art technology to deliver breakthroughs to patients

Ferri-Borgogno, now an assistant professor in Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at MD Anderson, recently received the National Cancer Institute Human Tumor Atlas Network grant for $5 million. She used technology rarely found at other hospitals and research facilities to create a truly novel approach to her research. Rather than studying cancer cells, she looks at the different cells and microorganisms that work together to support cancer cell growth – metabolites, glycans, peptides, proteins, RNA and bacteria. She hopes that developing a better understanding of this environment will make way for new therapies and targets for ovarian cancer treatment.

Her work is made possible in part by the Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Core Facility. This facility, which has two lab locations at MD Anderson, provides researchers with extensive expertise and some high-tech tools related to multi-omics, the study and characterization of all biological molecules of one type and how they interrelate in the body to produce the functions of life. Nearly 300 principal investigators rely on this facility for their research.

It's run by Jared Burks, Ph.D., a scientist with a background in protein-focused imaging and a passion for helping scientists find hard-sought answers.

“I get the most excited when I can help scientists solve the problems that have been plaguing them,” Burks says.

The Flow Cytometry core facility is one of the more than 30 core facilities at MD Anderson that brings the latest technologies and experts who truly understand how scientists’ work can benefit from using them.

Finding Wonderland at MD Anderson

The technologies offer an edge to scientists like Ferri-Borgogno, who came to MD Anderson during the last year of her Ph.D. at the University of Turin in Italy. It was supposed to be a short stay. That was nine years ago.  

“I ended up finding wonderland,” she says. “I was mesmerized by the amount of technology here. Scientists can do everything here. I have better ideas working at MD Anderson.”

For the first part of her career at MD Anderson, Ferri-Borgogno worked in a lab focused on pancreatic cancer. She was drawn to the work because the cancer type was so difficult to treat and often deadly. But the lab she worked in was focused on looking at what was happening inside the cancer cells. Ferri-Borgogno wanted to look outside of them and study how the environment around them impacted them.

It just so happened that at the time, Samuel Mok, Ph.D., a researcher studying ovarian cancer, was starting several new studies in spatial omics. But the area was new for him and he needed someone with expertise. Ferri-Borgogno was the missing piece his lab needed.

Now, decades after she first walked through the waiting room on the way to her lab in Italy, Ferri-Borgogno’s motivation hasn’t changed.  

“I still make it a point to walk by the waiting room from time to time,” she says. “I still want to help every patient in it.”

Learn about research careers at MD Anderson.