Facilities at WSU Spokane help pharmacy researcher fight cancer
Since joining the WSU College of Pharmacy two years ago as a post-doctoral associate in the lab of Philip Lazarus, Joe Ashmore has been immersed in laboratory research involving tobacco smoke and lung cancer. His current project focuses on a metabolite of nicotine (NNK) that is the main carcinogen in tobacco smoke. NNK is not easily eliminated from the body, but if the body converts it to another metabolite (NNAL), it can be expelled.