Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust Funds Awarded to ISU Faculty Molly Kozminsky

June 17, 2025- Ames IA. Dr. Molly Kozminsky, Assistant Professor in the Chemical and Biological Engineering department at Iowa State University, was recently awarded a Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust grant award to study how blood stem cells and cancer stem cells behave in the bone marrow.

The bone marrow is a complex part of our body, acting as the “home” to blood stem cells that create blood cells. This same environment can become a target for cancer cells, especially prostate cancer, which spreads to the bone marrow through a process called metastasis.

The challenge researchers face is how to expand and transplant blood stem cells effectively, while also understanding how the same cues that create this home for blood stem cells are exploited by cancer cells that take up residence. Dr. Kozminsky, who is also a member of the Nanovaccine Institute, is particularly interested in how the bone marrow environment both supports blood stem cell growth and influences cancer progression.

“The bone marrow is challenging to study using traditional techniques due to its complexity,” says Dr. Kozminsky.” My lab combines microfabrication and biomedical techniques to reconstruct cellular spatial arrangement at the resolution needed to probe specific interactions that can be targeted therapeutically.”

To study this, her lab is working on a new lab-based system that can recreate the bone marrow environment. The team of graduate students, a post doctorate associate, and the lead investigator are combining cutting-edge technology called DNA-directed patterning with advanced cell culture techniques to build models of the bone marrow. This technology will allow them to control how cells are arranged in the bone marrow, which is crucial for understanding how they interact and behave in the body. By building these models, the team will be able to study how spatial arrangement and the types of cells in the bone marrow influence the behavior of both blood stem cells and cancer cells. They will test how blood stem cells mature into different types of blood cells, and how this process might be impacted by location within the bone marrow environment.

This research has the potential to improve blood stem cell therapies and lead to new ways to treat diseases like metastatic cancer. The team will also test the effect of drugs that might help prepare the bone marrow for stem cell transplants, potentially making the process more effective for patients. The team intends to develop a reliable and flexible method for recreating specific environments in the lab.

This new approach could revolutionize the study of diseases in the bone marrow and offer powerful new tools for creating treatments that improve patient outcomes.

“As an early-stage investigator, I am grateful to the Carver Trust for their support of these exciting new projects and directions for my lab,” says Dr. Kozminsky.” Our work will contribute to the portfolio of innovative biomedical research taking place in Iowa.”

The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, based in Iowa, supports biomedical and scientific research, scholarships, and programs to address educational and recreational needs for youth. Their medical and scientific research program area provides support for innovative investigation that holds great promise to advance scientific knowledge and improve human health.

Follow the Nanovaccine Institute to learn more news and updates about this project and more.