More about
Dr. Towner:

Dr. Towner's profile

Dr. Towner 101
(for non-scientists)

Dr. Towner's CV in brief

Publications

Advanced Magnetic Resonance Center

Dr. Towner In The News

OMRF scientists exploring novel breast cancer treatment

OMRF developing promising treatment for brain tumor affecting Kennedy

Rheal A. Towner, Ph.D. Associate Member, Advanced Magnetic Resonance Center Director, Advanced Magnetic Resonance Center Imaging Facility Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Pharmaceutical Sciences,   University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Associate Member, College of Medicine, Graduate Faculty in the Department of   Pathology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

The research in my laboratory centers on developing new ways to diagnose and predict the outcome of human diseases using non-invasive imaging and spectroscopic methods. These methods also allow us to evaluate new and existing drugs and determine optimal treatment protocols for the specific disease. In our studies, we use the techniques of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to identify and study specific conditions of injured or diseased tissues in small animal models of disease. MRI is the newest and most advanced way to visualize structures inside the body since the invention of CT (or “CAT”) scans. Unlike CT scans, however, MRI does not involve radiation, but combines the use of a large magnet and radio waves. The hydrogen atoms in the body react to the magnetic field generated by MRI, while a computer analyzes the results and turns them into a picture. The image resolution of the picture is quite detailed and can detect very small changes in structures within tissues of the body. Our experimental approach of using MRI and MRS technology with small animal models of disease has many advantages, including the ability to investigate disease processes both in vivo, which means while the animal is alive, and in real time. Currently, we are most interested in understanding the molecular events that lead to the formation and development of cancer cells as well as the processes that cause tissue injury after the ingestion of natural toxins that can be found in contaminated food or water.

Both a fundamental and key issue in the early detection of cancer is to identify and understand characteristic molecular or metabolic events that occur in malignant cells but do not occur in normal cells. One way that we study this issue in my laboratory is to investigate specific components of metabolic reactions (metabolites), or molecular indicators, in malignant cells that are different from those in normal cells. These molecular indicators of cancerous tissues can then be used to predict and understand the development of nodules and tumors, from the initiation of a malignant cell throughout the progression of the cancer. Most recently, we are using this strategy in rodent (mice and rat) models of liver and brain cancer to investigate tumor morphology, new blood vessel formation, and fatty acid metabolism. We have discovered certain MRI techniques (MRI at 7 Tesla) that can detect tumor nodules in the liver as small as the thickness of a sheet of paper, allowing in vivo assessment of nodule/tumor development during the very first stages of formation of a cancer. The MRI techniques that we use are so sophisticated that they can even detect certain changes in metabolites inside the cells of the nodules or tumors and then correlate these changes with stages of tumor progression (also called tumor grading). One metabolic change that we have detected in cancer cells is an alteration in lipid unsaturated fatty acids. Additionally, we have found that certain enzymes involved in the metabolism or breakdown of fatty acids by cells are altered during tumor formation and thus, these findings may explain the metabolic changes that we observed by MRI. In similar studies, we use the same MRI strategies and techniques to measure metabolic changes in cells that occur after exposure to food- or water-borne toxicological agents, such as toxins produced by fungus and bacteria (mycotoxins, cyanobacteria toxins, etc.). The ability to correlate metabolic information obtained by MRI with tumor development and toxin-induced tissue injury should provide new insights into critical cell processes that are involved in malignancy and toxicity, as well as lead to a better understanding of mechanisms that occur in normal cells.

Another focus in our laboratory is on the discovery of “MRI molecular targeting agents”, or agents that selectively target or pinpoint tumor antigens on cancer cells and then allow the cancer cells to be visualized by MRI in live animals. By using in vivo MRI techniques to study tumors in the liver and brain of rodent models of cancer, we can simultaneously detect changes in tumor markers on the malignant cells, measure biochemical properties of the cancer cells, and determine the pathology of the tumor. We then correlate these molecular findings with progression of the disease. In fact, my laboratory was among the first to detect nodules/tumors in experimental animal models that express a specific receptor found in many human cancers (called c-MET), using the in vivo MRI molecular-targeting approach. These same MRI methods are also used to assess anti-cancer treatments in the animal cancer models and we have found a promising drug candidate that recedes tumor growth in an experimental model of brain cancer.

The ultimate goal of our research is to develop in vivo MRI methods that can be used in the clinic as tools for tumor grading and to predict the extent of tissue injury from toxin exposure in human patients. Having the ability to use a non-invasive technique such as in vivo MRI in both the diagnosis and therapy of cancer, among other diseases, provides great benefit to both the patient and physician.