Current Projects

The Developmental Therapeutics Program brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines whose goal is to develop new, more effective cancer treatments. Investigators in this program focus on research in four areas:

• Elucidation of the signaling pathways that contribute to cancer cell survival and proliferation
• Laboratory evaluation of small molecule inhibitors that target these pathways and others implicated in resistance to current chemotherapeutic approaches
• Performance of innovative clinical trials designed to assess the effectiveness and safety of new agents as well as their ability to inhibit their intended targets in the clinical setting
• Study of how a patient’s genetic makeup affects the response to and side effects of chemotherapy

Each of these areas is described in greater detail in the following pages:

Signaling Pathways Involved In Cell Survival

Cell signaling pathways are fundamental to the understanding of cancer. A complicated series of signals tells cells when to divide and when to stop growing. Cells divide and duplicate their DNA over and over again with remarkable precision. Sometimes – perhaps once in a billion times – there is a malfunction that may damage a cell. When the signaling pathways are working correctly, the damaged cell recognizes that it is defective and either undergoes repair (usually of damaged DNA) or triggers a process of self-destruction known as apoptosis (programmed cell death). In cells where the signaling pathways for DNA repair and/or programmed cell death are not functioning properly, cells continue to divide and become cancerous.

Many anti-cancer drugs kill cancer cells by damaging DNA or other cellular components, ultimately producing signals that trigger apoptosis. As a result, alterations in the same signaling pathways that contribute to the development of cancer initially can also affect the sensitivity of cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agents and radiation.

The study of signaling pathways has been a major emphasis of the Developmental Therapeutics Program. In addition to providing new insight into the development of cancer, this research provides opportunities to better understand the nature of cellular responses to anti-cancer agents, to identify potential new targets for chemotherapy and to take advantage of these targets for more targeted therapies.

Read more about some specific projects.