Immanuel works to solve puzzle of better pancreatic cancer treatment

When Susan Immanuel talks about her research, one theme is clear. “I like solving puzzles,” she said.

At South Dakota State University’s College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, Immanuel is applying that mindset to pancreatic cancer, exploring new ways to deliver effective cancer drugs more precisely and effectively to tumors.

Immanuel, a postdoctoral research associate in the college’s pharmaceutical sciences department who recently earned a grant from the Haarberg Drug, Disease and Delivery (3D) Research Center, is focused on drug repurposing and advanced delivery systems. Her work centers on combining an existing Food and Drug Administration-approved drug with a standard pancreatic cancer treatment in a way that could significantly improve patient outcomes.

“When you give these two drugs together, you theoretically should see an exponential effect on shrinking the tumor,” Immanuel explained.

This approach also has practical advantages. Because the repurposed drug is already approved, it may reach the market, and patients, more quickly than a completely new therapy.

“Since it’s a repurposed drug, bringing it to market is easier and faster than developing and testing an entirely new drug,” she said.

For Immanuel, her Haarberg 3D Center project builds on years of research into drug delivery systems, an area she says is just as, if not more, important than the drug itself.

Better drug delivery systems ensure that medications actually reach the places in the body where they can make a difference. Many treatments lose their effectiveness before they ever reach their target.

For example, most of an eye drop, including the drug in that drop, is simply washed away by tears, leaving only a small fraction of medication to penetrate the tissue. Even when drugs are delivered directly into the bloodstream, they circulate throughout the entire body, affecting both healthy and diseased cells, potentially forcing physicians to use higher, more toxic doses to achieve the desired effect.

That’s why many cancer therapies come with significant side effects.

“The drug affects everything,” she said. “That’s why when you give cancer drugs, people start losing their hair, as an example.”

Immanuel wants to change that.

“I want to develop a platform that can deliver the drug only to the specific tumor site rather than the whole body,” Immanuel said.

According to Immanuel, by designing drug delivery systems to precisely target specific tissues, these systems can guide therapies exactly where they are needed, concentrating their impact on a tumor, for instance, while sparing the rest of the body. As a result, treatments are not only more effective but also safer and better tolerated.

Fighting a ‘silent’ cancer

According to the American Cancer Society, although pancreatic cancer accounts for just 3% of all cancers in the United States, it is the third leading cause of cancer deaths. The uniquely complex challenges associated with pancreatic cancer contribute to its persistently low survival rates, underscoring the critical need for innovative approaches like those Immanuel is pursuing.

According to Immanuel, one major challenge in treating pancreatic cancer effectively is the lack of time that physicians have to treat pancreatic cancer. Symptoms are not obvious in this type of cancer, often called a “silent” killer.

“Most of the time, patients get diagnosed only in the later stages of the disease,” Immanuel said.

Symptoms of early-stage pancreatic cancer are easy to miss as they tend to mimic other health concerns such as indigestion or generalized stomach pain. In addition, the pancreas is located deep within the body, and tumors are difficult to feel during a physical exam.

The disease is difficult to treat effectively, as well. Even when therapies are available, tumors can quickly adapt.

“The cells develop resistance,” Immanuel said. “No matter what drug you give, the cells are going to change and grow.”

Another hurdle lies within the tumor itself. Pancreatic tumors include not only cancer cells but also surrounding tissue that can limit how drugs penetrate and work. To effectively treat the pancreatic cancer, the drug delivery system needs to navigate non-cancer cells that actually make up the bulk of the tumor.

To better understand how treatments will perform, Immanuel and her mentors are using advanced 3D tumor models that more closely mimic real conditions in the body.

So far, the results are promising.

“The drug we selected and the delivery system we have designed are showing a really good effect on the 3D models, too,” she said. “We’ve been having really good progress with this project.”

Immanuel's journey to cancer fighter

Immanuel’s path to SDSU began in India, where she initially considered becoming a physician before choosing a scientific route. She completed her Ph.D. in nanotechnology at the PSG Institute of Advanced Studies before launching a research career, including work at the Aravind Medical Research Foundation and a postdoctoral appointment at the Texas A&M Health Science Center.

Her early work focused on the development of nanomaterials for biosensors that help in the diagnosis of eye diseases and neurological disorders. Over time, her focus shifted toward pharmaceutical sciences and combining repurposed drugs and better delivery systems. That transition eventually led her to SDSU, where she works closely with Sanku Mallik, College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions associate dean of research and professor of pharmaceutical sciences, and Joshua Reineke, co-director of the Haarberg 3D Center and associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences.

She also collaborates with Sharon Prince, an internationally accomplished cancer scientist, at the University of Cape Town. According to Immanuel, Prince’s research team used artificial intelligence-driven database searches to identify a drug that showed particularly strong potential to fight cancers including skin, breast and pancreatic cancer. Immanuel’s role in the collaboration is to take that discovery to the next level by developing the right drug delivery system.

While the science of developing that system is complex, Immanuel’s motivation is simple: contribute to solving a problem that affects so many lives. Even small advances, she believes, are meaningful.

“The ultimate solution to this puzzle might take my entire career,” she said. “But I would like to make my contribution toward it.”

One carefully targeted solution at a time.

About the Haarberg 3D Center

The Haarberg 3D Center, established in 2021, focuses on advancing drug development through integrated research and collaboration. It aims to build the infrastructure, partnerships and networks needed to translate and commercialize new treatments for cancer and other diseases. The center brings together multidisciplinary strengths in drug, disease and delivery research from South Dakota State University, the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and other academic, clinical and industry partners. It was established with a $1.1 million gift from Kevin and Lorie Haarberg and a five-year, $3.9 million award from the South Dakota Research and Commercialization Council.