Since Dr. Farkas studies three different areas of research, three different approaches are being taken, though all are connected in the sense that all are meant to further understand the causes of cancer and to lead to potential treatment. First is the study of the altered circadian rhythms, as they have been found to match up with drug resistance during cancer treatment and to in general cause more aggressive cases of cancer. In this research, detectable entities, or luciferase reporters, are being developed for proteins essential to the circadian clock and for the cancer proteins involved. The reporters are to be used to detect change in rhythm. One potential obstacle is the comparison and relationship of this process in different types of cancer, as they may all not be able to be treated in the same way. Next, the study of modified macrophages as targets for cancer is equally as promising. In this research macrophages are targeted so that the macrophages that are recruited for the toxic sites of cancer can be harnessed and used for good instead (attacking the cancer), rather than in other cancer research where they are outright killed. This research is creating macrophages that have reporters that can distinguish between phenotypes so that they can attack only at unhealthy tissue. Finally are the capsules for therapeutic delivery that are being studied in the hopes that co-delivery enhances the effectiveness of cancer treatment. All of these processes involve the understanding of targets and antibodies which is a long studied field in cancer research.
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