Michael Pierce, Ph.D.

Mudter Professor in Cancer Research

Michael Pierce’s interest in developing new diagnostic tests and treatments for cancer is both professional and personal.

In 1981, when he was setting up his first research lab, his father was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a relatively rare cancer often associated with asbestos exposure.

“It was a very highly metastatic cancer,” Pierce recalls. “There was no diagnostic marker for it and the treatments were not very effective - mainly because it was so advanced by the time it was diagnosed.”

Pierce had been studying the complex carbohydrates known as glycans that adorn cells. After his father’s death, he decided to narrow his focus to the role of glycans in cancer.

Research by Pierce and others has shown that changes in cell glycans can herald the presence of cancerous or precancerous cells. Among his research accomplishments, Pierce and his team isolated a specific enzyme known as Gnt-V that is elevated in colorectal and breast cancer cells, as well as other types of cancer. The team is now looking for ways to inhibit Gnt-V in hopes of developing a treatment that will slow the growth of tumors and prevent metastasis. The team at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center has also developed new ways to identify changes in glycans attached to proteins known as glycoproteins.

Their search for new diagnostics also extends to pancreatic cancer. The UGA Cancer Center team is studying pancreatic tissue and fluid samples to find glycan changes that can be measured in a blood test that would allow doctors to diagnose the cancer early, when it’s more easily treated. “I’m confident that if there are glycoprotein blood markers for this cancer, we will find them,” he says.

Pierce has been the director of the UGA Cancer Center since its founding in 2004. He says its interdisciplinary approach - which brings together researchers who study the cellular mechanisms of cancer with those who specialize in drug discovery, the development of diagnostics, as well as cancer education and health promotion – allows the UGA Cancer Center to tackle complex problems from several angles at once.

“We really have a unique set of resources that we’ve developed here,” Pierce says. “It’s a very exciting place to be because no one else can do what we can do here at the University of Georgia.”

To learn more, view the Director's Message or visit the Pierce lab at http://cell.ccrc.uga.edu/~pierce/index.html.