Student Position Available, Morningside Center for Innovative and Affordable Medicine

Organization:     Morningside Center for Innovative and Affordable Medicine at Emory University

Location:             Atlanta, GA (Remote)

Date Range:       Fall 2023-Spring 2024    

Hours:                   10-20 hours (Flexible)

Preferred Qualifications: MPH Epidemiology student with clinical background (Second year)

Goal:

For each type of cancer, find, evaluate, and summarize existing clinical data (clinical trials, retrospective and small prospective studies) on supporting the use of off-label combinations of FDA approved non-cancer and cancer drugs. 

Background:

Cancer patients have co-morbid conditions like diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Therefore, along with their cancer treatments (surgery, radiation, chemotherapy etc.) they are also taking drugs like metformin, NSAIDs, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, ARBS, and statins. Many clinical trials, retrospective and population studies have looked at the effects of these non-cancer drugs on cancer outcomes (off-label use). Evaluation of quality and statistical methods used in these studies will allow us to determine if a given drug is ready for prospective clinical trials.

ReMedy (Repurposed Medicines) Cancer Database:

ReMedy Database aims to make the process of finding repurposed drug data related to cancer easier for patients, physicians, and potential investigators. There are currently unmet needs in medicine due to expensive, toxic, and only moderately effective therapies. However, there are also scientifically promising ideas for new treatments which are not being developed largely because they lack sufficient financial incentive. Many of these potential treatments include FDA approved drugs that could be repurposed for other indications, such as cancer.

Tasks:

• For each type of cancer, search PUBMED and other databases for Human data on off-label use.
• Use Mendeley to code relevant data to input into ReMedy database.
• Summarize papers (use a pre-agreed format)- consider both safety, efficacy (QOL, PFS, OS; RR) and any biomarker use.
• Input data into UI ReMedy Database.
• Tabulate studies for different agents (Aspirin/NSAIDS, Metformin, Statins etc.)

The Morningside Center for Innovative and Affordable Medicine (Morningside Center):

We are an interdisciplinary unit within the Woodruff Health Sciences Center at Emory University consisting of a core group of staff, and affiliated faculty from across Emory. Extending the vision of GlobalCures Inc., a non-profit medical research organization, the Morningside Center was created to promote research, education, and advocacy for effective and affordable medical treatments.

Interested students please reach out to greeshma [dot] girish [dot] kombara [at] emory [dot] edu with resume.