Acquired Resistance to Therapy and Iron Center

The aim of the Acquired Resistance to Therapy and Iron (ARTI) Center is to define mechanisms of tumor resistance to radiation therapy and other therapies, with a focus on iron-dependent cell death (i.e., ferroptosis) and other cell death mechanisms, and to further translate this mechanistic understanding into effective therapies, such as sensitizers to radiation therapy. The ARTI Center is a part of the Acquired Resistance to Therapy Network (ARTNet), which is sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The overarching goals of the ARTI Center are to:

1. Bridge the basic science mechanisms of ferroptosis in acquired resistance with translational research in preclinical models and human patient samples.
2. Identify cohorts of cancer patients who are at greatest risk to develop acquired radiation and drug resistance.
3. Investigate the ability of novel therapeutic agents to re-sensitize cancer cells (such as lung, esophageal, and pancreatic cancer cells) to radiation by inducing ferroptosis.