Dr. Yupo Ma

By Brian Sodoma (contact)

Friday, May 1, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Dr. Yupo Ma, chief of hematopathology at the Nevada Cancer Institute, is helping clear up the mystery of two baffling diseases and also is bringing hope to hemophilia patients. But Ma hopes his research will help in bringing solutions to even more complicated health disorders in the future.

Ma, whose subspecialty is lymphoma, saw his mother lose her battle to colon cancer. The experience was enough to make him want to go into medicine, then more specifically, into research.

“I was always thinking I wanted to go into medicine. I also like to do research, because if you become a doctor and don’t do research, you don’t know how much you can (help) the patient,” he said.

Born in China, Ma’s educational and research path has taken him to numerous universities around the world. He first entered medical school in China at age 19 and has been in the United States since 1987. Since then, Ma attended Brown University, Harvard Medical School, the University of Washington and other schools. Ma, 46, has been at Nevada Cancer Institute since 2005.

Through his research, Ma discovered a protein called SALL4. He categorizes the protein as a “master regulator” of genes, which means when “over-expressed” it could encourage tumor growth. Ma has been awarded numerous research grants for SALL4, including a $2 million Research Project Grant from the National Institute of Health.

The researcher believes that a 50 percent reduction of SALL4 in myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia patients could help reverse the very complex conditions. Now, Ma is looking for a drug company willing to develop a drug that would reduce SALL4 levels in MDS and AML patients in clinical trials.

Ma also has identified a stem cell therapy by using adult somatic cells and turning back their developmental clock, so that they behave like embryonic stem cells. This process, called retrodifferentiation, produces induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. By using these cells with other growth factors, Ma was able to create the Factor VIII protein (a clotting factor) that can reverse the excessive bleeding found in hemophilia patients. The therapy has not been tried on humans yet, and Ma said two to three years of human testing is required.

The researcher also believes iPs, if there are no immunological responses from humans, can possibly go into insulin-secreting transfer mode, which could help Type II diabetes patients. He also believes there may be other conditions that could benefit from the therapy.

“Hopefully, some day in the future, we can get rid of Type II diabetes,” Ma said.

That’s something even cancer patients would likely applaud.