{"693774":{"#nid":"693774","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Can the Nervous System Help Fight Cancer? $3M NIH Award Aims to Find Out","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EOne of the biggest breakthroughs in modern cancer treatment doesn\u2019t attack cancer directly. Instead, immunotherapy harnesses the body\u2019s immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENow, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/people.research.gatech.edu\/nick-housley\u0022\u003ENick Housley\u003C\/a\u003E is exploring whether another bodily system could be recruited in the fight against cancer: the nervous system.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFrom first principles, the nervous system is involved in every aspect of normal development and bodily maintenance,\u201d says Housley, an assistant professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E and faculty director of Innovation for the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/neuro.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EInstitute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Society\u003C\/a\u003E. \u201cWhen these normal processes go awry, the nervous system is not just a bystander. It is actively driving changes and\/or responding to disease.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWith a new five-year, $3 million \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.niams.nih.gov\/grants-funding\/applying-grant\/grant-review-process\/stephen-i-katz-early-stage-investigator-research\u0022\u003EStephen I. Katz Award\u003C\/a\u003E from the National Institutes of Health, Housley aims to uncover how cancer interacts with the body\u2019s neural circuitry and whether those connections could ultimately reveal new ways to fight the disease.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe idea that cancer and the nervous system interact isn\u2019t entirely new. Scientists have known for more than a century that many solid tumors are connected to nerves. More recently, studies of brain cancer have revealed that \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/31534222\/\u0022\u003Etumors can form circuits with neurons\u003C\/a\u003E that \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/39644898\/\u0022\u003Eaffect cancer growth, invasion, and resistance to treatment\u003C\/a\u003E. But exactly how cancers elsewhere in the body connect with and potentially exploit the nervous system is largely a mystery.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHousley is starting with the ovary, an organ especially reliant on cues from the nervous system for normal function. Ovarian cancer is also one of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cancer.org\/cancer\/types\/ovarian-cancer\/key-statistics.html\u0022\u003Eleading causes of cancer death among women\u003C\/a\u003E, making the need for new approaches especially urgent.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOvarian cancer is tricky because it disproportionately lacks clear early symptoms,\u201d says Housley. Without reliable symptoms or an effective early screening method, the disease is often not detected until later stages, when it is more difficult to treat. \u201cWe are very interested in understanding how the tumor innervates and integrates into the host nervous system to modulate activity patterns and remain hidden.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EYet even the baseline for understanding those connections is missing. Scientists don\u2019t yet have a complete map of the neural circuitry of a healthy ovary, much less an understanding of how that circuitry changes when cancer develops.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat kind of knowledge gap is precisely what the National Institutes of Health\u2019s Stephen I. Katz Award is designed to address. It empowers early-career scientists like Housley to make bold research pivots into new scientific fields without requiring preliminary data.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWith the Katz Award, Housley will start by creating the missing neural map of the ovarian system, comparing neural connections in healthy and cancerous ovaries and tracing them from local networks to the spinal cord and brain.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019re trying to figure out who\u2019s connected to whom and whether those structural connections are functional,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFrom there, his team will examine how ovarian cancer cells and neurons communicate and how those interactions affect both cell types. Finally, they will manipulate specific populations of neurons to test how neural activity affects tumor development, progression, and response to cancer treatments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhere we are right now with cancer neuroscience is very similar to where immunotherapy was several decades ago,\u201d Housley said. \u201cOur blue-sky goal is to develop enough foundational knowledge about how the nervous system interfaces with ovarian cancer that we can exploit it \u2014 suppressing pro-tumoral signals and enhancing tumor suppressors to improve patient outcomes.\u201d\u003Cbr\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech researchers are investigating how ovarian cancer connects with the nervous system, and whether those interactions could reveal new approaches to treatment.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech researchers are investigating how ovarian cancer connects with the nervous system, and whether those interactions could reveal new approaches to treatment."}],"uid":"35575","created_gmt":"2026-11-04 17:31:11","changed_gmt":"2026-11-04 17:35:55","author":"adavidson38","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-11-04T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2026-11-04T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681661":{"id":"681661","type":"image","title":"20260226-Cancer-Delivery-System-Story_Social-Media-5.jpg","body":"\u003Cdiv\u003ENick Housley, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Biological Sciences, studies how the nervous system responds to cancer and, in turn, how neural activity can shape the disease.\u003C\/div\u003E","created":"1793813489","gmt_created":"2026-11-04 17:31:29","changed":"1793813489","gmt_changed":"2026-11-04 17:31:29","alt":"Researcher wearing a blue Georgia Institute of Technology lab coat stands in a laboratory lined with scientific equipment and supplies.","file":{"fid":"266097","name":"20260226-Cancer-Delivery-System-Story_Social-Media-5.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/11\/04\/20260226-Cancer-Delivery-System-Story_Social-Media-5.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/11\/04\/20260226-Cancer-Delivery-System-Story_Social-Media-5.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1432559,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/11\/04\/20260226-Cancer-Delivery-System-Story_Social-Media-5.jpg?itok=r-2g-jey"}}},"media_ids":["681661"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/news.research.gatech.edu\/feature\/nanohydrogels","title":"Target the Tumor. Spare the Body."},{"url":"https:\/\/neuro.gatech.edu\/chemotherapy-and-cancer-gang-cause-neurological-side-effect-study-says","title":"Chemotherapy and Cancer Gang up to Cause a Neurological Side Effect, Study Says"},{"url":"https:\/\/neuro.gatech.edu\/georgia-tech-researchers-aim-stop-chemo-neuro-damage-it-starts","title":"Georgia Tech Researchers Aim to Stop Chemo Neuro Damage Before it Starts"}],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"66220","name":"Neuro"},{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"},{"id":"140","name":"Cancer Research"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"194701","name":"go-resarchnews"},{"id":"172970","name":"go-neuro"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"193656","name":"Neuro Next Initiative"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:audra.davidson@research.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EAudra Davidson\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EResearch Communications Manager\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/neuro.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EInstitute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Society (INNS)\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["audra.davidson@research.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}