# Elucidating and exploiting the mechanisms by which IL-6 and IL-8 facilitate osteosarcoma metastasis

> **NIH NIH K08** · RESEARCH INST NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S HOSP · 2020 · $163,080

## Abstract

CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL SUMMARY
This Career Development award will support the work of Dr. Ryan D. Roberts, MD, PhD. It will provide him
with unique opportunities to develop his investigative skills in a protected and mentored setting. It will facilitate
the generation of a sufficient core body of research so that he will be able to compete successfully for R01-
level funding and transition to independence.
Ryan is a Fellow in Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, and Bone Marrow Transplant in his final months of
training. He completed a PhD in Integrated Biomedical Sciences at the Ohio State University, where he studied
tumor-host interactions and tumor immunology. His graduate work demonstrated how breast tumor cells
interact with macrophages in ways that facilitate the growth and spread of those tumors. He demonstrated that
therapeutic cytokine modalities could make those same macrophages adopt anti-tumor behaviors.
He began his current line of work while a Pediatric Research Resident at Nationwide Children's Hospital in
Columbus, Ohio and has continued that work during his fellowship. His lab has shown that IL-6 and IL-8 play
important roles in the dynamics that facilitate recruitment of osteosarcoma cells from the circulation into the
lung and growth with those tissues. The proposed research plan aims to characterize the mechanisms by
which these cytokines drive the metastatic process and to explore the potential that targeting these pathways
might have for preventing metastases from forming and for treating existing lung metastases:
 Aim 1 will determine the relative importance of tumor-derived and lung-derived IL-6 and IL-8 to metastasis.
 Aim 2 will identify the intercellular signaling loops that mediate the process, namely, which resident lung
 cells the tumor cells interact with and what other cytokines are involved.
 Aim 3 will test the therapeutic potential of IL-6 and IL-8 pathway disruption for the prevention of metastasis
 and determine whether there is a period of opportunity surrounding tumor resection where such therapies
 might be particularly relevant.
Integrated with this research proposal is a comprehensive career development plan, built on a backbone of
solid mentorship. Ryan will enjoy structured and ongoing mentorship from:
 Stephen Lessnick, MD, PhD, his Center Director, an internationally-renown sarcoma biologist who has
 independently described much of the molecular pathophysiology driving malignancy in Ewing sarcoma.
 Timothy Cripe, MD, PhD, his Division Chair, an internationally respected expert in oncolytic viruses and
 pediatric sarcomas who heads several of his own phase I clinical trials.
 Peter Houghton, PhD, his former center director and primary mentor during, an international expert in
 preclinical drug evaluation and head of the NCI's Pediatric Preclinical Testing Program.
 Denis Guttridge, PhD, an extremely successful expert in muscle biology and rhabdomyosarcoma with
 particular expertise in the disse...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9936140
- **Project number:** 5K08CA201638-05
- **Recipient organization:** RESEARCH INST NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S HOSP
- **Principal Investigator:** RYAN D. ROBERTS
- **Activity code:** K08 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $163,080
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-07-20 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9936140

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9936140, Elucidating and exploiting the mechanisms by which IL-6 and IL-8 facilitate osteosarcoma metastasis (5K08CA201638-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9936140. Licensed CC0.

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