Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 2, 2007|Volume 36, Number 9

NIH-funded study to explore
how damaged cancer cells mend

Yale School of Medicine researchers have received $8.4 million to study how cancer cells mend their own chromosomes and DNA after damage caused by radiation and chemotherapy.

The study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the next step in developing targeted cancer therapies, says the lead researcher, Dr. Peter Glazer, chair of therapeutic radiology and leader of the radiobiology research program at Yale Cancer Center.

“We have put together a program to target protein and DNA repair enzymes that fix the DNA,” Glazer says. “We feel this could create an ‘Achilles heel’ for cancer cells that would make them more vulnerable to traditional cancer therapies.”

Cancer therapies such as radiation and chemotherapy work by damaging the cancer cells’ DNA, which carries the information, or blueprint, for cell replication.

Glazer says the four NIH-funded Yale studies combine basic and translational research and may lead to new therapies for use with conventional radiation and chemotherapy.

“It is our hope to be able to offer novel therapies derived from this research to our patients at the Yale Cancer Center,” he says. “The overall program represents a significant commitment of the Yale School of Medicine and the participating investigators to studies that have direct relevance to cancer biology and therapy.”

In one research project, Alan Sartorelli, professor of pharmacology, will develop new cancer drugs that become activated in the low-oxygen conditions in which tumor cells can thrive. Once activated, the drug sets in motion the destruction of a resistance protein that repairs certain DNA lesions.

Glazer will lead a study of the cancer DNA repair genes, RAD51 and BRCA1, in cancer cells. His goal is to devise strategies to render cancer cells vulnerable to therapies that target interconnected repair pathways. RAD51 creates a protein that performs DNA repair and BRCA1 is a tumor suppressor associated with breast cancer.

Joann Sweasy, professor of therapeutic radiology, will study how DNA repair occurs in the normal human population and in tumors. She will examine how deficiencies in DNA repair can be used to guide the design of new cancer therapies.

Patrick Sung, professor of therapeutic radiology and of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, will focus on the repair genes BRCA2, FANCD2 and RAD51, and how their repair pathways are regulated at the level of protein-to-protein interactions.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Alumnus makes major gift to new cancer care facility

New Yale ALERT system to allow instant communications . . .

Microsoft-Yale project will provide worldwide access to . . .

NIH honors chemist for innovative work on antibodies

NIH-funded study to explore how damaged cancer cells mend

Study: New brain cells listen before they talk

Study shows tiny RNAs play big role in controlling genes

Yale geologist honored for research on climate variations

New Yale opera group will debut with a performance of . . .

Yale singing groups come together for a concert to benefit United Way

‘The Future of Energy’ conference to assess issues of next 25 years

Ten Yale scientists are honored with election as fellows of the AAAS

Funding cuts have created a ‘crisis’ in the battle against cancer, says panel

OCR chief testifies before Congress

Memorial service for Kitty Lustman-Findling to be held on Nov. 10

Frederick Douglass Prize awarded for book exploring . . .

Autumn’s paintbrush

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes