Outside the Box: Dr. Daniel Blanco-Melo

V Foundation researcher Daniel Blanco-Melo, Ph.D., does not have the typical background of a cancer researcher. As a virologist, a scientist who studies viruses, he has a unique perspective while researching the disease. “Despite the fact that I’ve studied viruses for most of my academic career, a lot of the time responses and a lot of the same pathways that the cell uses to defend against viruses are also used to defend against cancer,” he said.

Co-funded by the Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund, the V Foundation Wine Celebration in honor of Leo Slattery, and a 2022 Volunteer Grant Honoree, Dr. Blanco-Melo leads a team of researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington. His research focuses on sequences in our DNA resulting from past viral infections.

Recently, at the 2024 V Summit, Dr. Blanco-Melo shared an update of his work through a brief flash talk. The V Summit is a conference for recently funded V Foundation researchers to come together and meet their peers in cancer research, share ideas and mingle with veteran researchers.

“It’s really great to have attended the V Summit – I am a virologist, so I’m not your typical cancer researcher,” Dr. Blanco-Melo said. “So being in contact with all these great people doing amazing work, it’s really instrumental and transformative for me.”

These sequences, deemed ‘viral fossils’, were once considered junk DNA and are typically not active to prevent damage to our genetic material. However, in many diseases, including cancer, they are turned on. Past research suggests that these viral fossils influence the way our cells fight other cells. Because of this, could the reason these viral fossils are turned on during cancer be our bodies trying to fight foreign tumor cells?

Dr. Blanco-Melo and his team are diving into this idea with the goal of testing different ways the activation of these viral fossils could prevent and fight cancer. To do this, he and his team will search all the viral fossils in our DNA, identify sequences that help our bodies find and destroy tumor cells, and test if one special viral fossil is able to prevent tumors by turning off its energy supply.

The hope of their specific project is to help the design of new treatment options, taking advantage of the potential roles of the ancient viral sequences.

Even with an out-of-the-box outlook, the goal of research for Dr. Blanco Melo remains the same.

“Victory Over Cancer® would be to not be afraid of a diagnosis and actually be supported and sure that things will go fine,” Dr. Blanco-Melo said. “That to me is victory.”

The game-changing work that Dr. Blanco-Melo and many other researchers are doing would not be possible without the V Foundation and the incredible generosity of donors. Together, we are on the same team seeking our ultimate championship: Victory Over Cancer®.

“I really want to thank the V Foundation for supporting my research,” Dr. Blanco-Melo said. “It’s been really transformative for the things that we do. It was the first grant that funded my laboratory, so thank you so much. It’s been really key to build the success in the lab.”