{"id":8011,"date":"2012-01-31T14:08:10","date_gmt":"2012-01-31T19:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=8011"},"modified":"2012-01-31T14:08:10","modified_gmt":"2012-01-31T19:08:10","slug":"600k-foundation-grant-to-fund-cancer-genomics-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=8011","title":{"rendered":"$600K Foundation Grant to Fund Cancer Genomics Research"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The National Foundation for Cancer Research<\/a> (NFCR) has awarded a $600,000 grant to the Translational Genomics Research Institute<\/a> (TGen) in Phoenix and the University of Arizona in Tucson for the study of targeted cancer therapies. The three-year grant will enable TGen and the university to continue its NFCR Center for Targeted Cancer Therapies, created in 2002 for new therapies to treat pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n

Traditional chemotherapeutic drugs can impair cell division — the underlying process of tumor development — in a general way, but targeted therapies specifically kill cancer cells and leave normal cells unharmed, which results in greater cancer-killing power and fewer side effects. “The overall objective of the research,” says Arizona medicinal chemist Laurence Hurley, “is to design and develop novel anti-tumor agents that will extend the productive lives of patients who have cancer.”<\/p>\n

One specific area of research at the NFCR Center focuses on agents that target the mutated K-Ras gene, which signals cancer cells to proliferate, migrate and survive. Mutations in the K-Ras gene that cause K-Ras proteins to be constantly activated are found in more than 95 percent of pancreatic cancers, the nation’s fourth leading cause of cancer death.<\/p>\n

Daniel Von Hoff, TGen’s head physician, and Hurley have identified compounds that in lab tests inhibit growth of pancreatic cancer cell lines expressing the mutant K-Ras gene. They hope to advance three new candidate compounds over the next three years. “The NFCR grant is enabling us to go after a key gene that is the most common abnormal gene in pancreatic cancer,” says Van Hoff. “We want to target that gene.”<\/p>\n

The Center also uses computational methods to extract genomics and pathway information from cancer cells and match each patient with the most effective treatment option available.<\/p>\n

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