Collaboration will focus on designing a small molecule to inhibit a protein, discovered by QIMR, that is linked to cancer survival.
Cancer Therapeutics CRC and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) agreed to work together to discover and develop new treatments for cancer. The R&D work will focus on a particular protein target that is reportedly critical to the genetic repair processes that promote cancer cell survival and keep them replicating.
Kum Kum Khanna, Ph.D., and Derek Richard in the Cancer and Cell Biology Division at QIMR identified this molecule. The biology of the protein appears to make it an extremely valuable target for therapeutic intervention, according to Dr. Khanna.
By discovering small molecules that inhibit the protein, Cancer Therapeutics CRC hopes to develop drugs that may stop cancers from growing and promote cancer cell death.