Dr. Bacich’s research focuses on prostate cancer, specifically the prostate cancer antigen, Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA), which is a unique folate hydrolase that is highly expressed in prostate cancer and is an independent marker of prostate cancer aggression. He has demonstrated that PSMA gives cells a growth advantage in physiological levels of folate, as well as demonstrating that moderate expression of PSMA is sufficient to drive prostate carcinogenesis, and follow this finding up by demonstrating that inhibiting the enzymatic activity of PSMA, neutralizes its tumor-initiating activity. My lab also demonstrated that both folate levels and PSMA inhibitors are able to modify the ability of PSMA expressing cells to invade in vitro.
