Ramadevi Subramani Reddy remembers the neem tree from her childhood in India — a plant her grandmother used to treat everything from fevers to infections. Now, in her Texas Tech Health El Paso lab, she’s investigating whether that same tree might hold the key to fighting pancreatic cancer in El Paso’s community, where the disease strikes at higher rates than anywhere else in Texas.
With a $45,000 grant from the Lizanell and Colbert Coldwell Foundation, Subramani Reddy explored whether gedunin, a compound from the neem tree, can attack pancreatic cancer with fewer toxic side effects than current chemotherapy.
The research comes at a critical time for El Paso County. According to the National Cancer Institute, pancreatic cancer strikes residents at a rate of 8.8 per 100,000 people…