Rosa Ventrella
Midwestern University-Downers Grove, IL·Biology
Chemotherapy and other cancer treatments often cause oral mucositis, painful sores in the lining of the mouth. These sores can lead to infections, poor nutrition, and even stopping cancer treatment.
- Fields
Biology
Physiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
oral mucositis
photobiomodulation therapy
low-level laser therapy
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Test whether combinations of PBMT light settings (light intensity, treatment time, total energy dose and wavelength) produce a biphasic rise-then-fall healing response in regenerating Xenopus laevis tadpole tails after amputation.
- Determine whether healing triggered by photobiomodulation requires reactive oxygen species. The team will use a transgenic Xenopus line that shows ROS levels in living cells, along with drugs that block or boost ROS.
- Identify new signaling pathways switched on by photobiomodulation during wound healing by using bulk RNA sequencing on regenerating tadpole tails.
More about the research
Photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT), which shines low-level laser light on tissue, can help prevent and heal these sores. However, the best light settings are debated. Too little light does little, but beyond a certain dose more light can actually harm tissue. How the light triggers healing inside cells is also unclear.
Why it matters
Cancer patients who develop oral mucositis could benefit from better-tuned light therapy and from drugs that might be combined with it to speed healing. A low-cost frog model could also help researchers test PBMT for other uses, including nerve, muscle, skin, bone and joint conditions.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Amy Sater
University of Houston, TX·Biology
Test how retinoic acid, a vitamin A-derived signal that patterns the embryo from head to tail, triggers the start of glial cell formation in the front region of the developing spinal cord of Xenopus laevis embryos.
Joseph Wider
University of Michigan, MI·Neuroscience
Determine how brain trauma and therapeutic near-infrared light affect mitochondrial dynamics and turnover, the processes by which mitochondria reshape themselves and are replaced, after TBI.
Kristen Curran
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, WI·Biology
Define changes in gene expression and metabolism during dorsal mesoderm specification by comparing wild-type and bmal1 knockout Xenopus animal caps induced with activin, using RNA-seq plus measurements of oxygen consumption and NAD+/NADH ratios.
The school
Midwestern University-Downers Grove: 2 labs on PI Pages, $14M a year on research.
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