VANDERBILT-INGRAM CANCER CENTER received a $3 million, three-year grant from the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, in support of VICC’s drug discovery program.
“We are profoundly grateful to the Foundation for their support of this vitally important cancer drug discovery research initiative,” said Scott Hiebert, Hortense B. Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, associate director of basic research and of shared resources at VICC, and newly-appointed member of the National Cancer Advisory Board. “This research leverages VICC’s strengths in drug discovery, cancer biology, genomic technologies, imaging and cancer model systems.”
The project will focus on the uncontrolled activity of oncogenes known as MYC that drive tumor development by regulating genes connected to cell growth, division and genomic instability.
William Tansey, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and co-leader of VICC’s Genome Maintenance Research Program, recently linked the function of MYC to another protein called WDR5. By blocking the function of WDR5, MYC was also inactivated.
