David W. Craig was named professor and inaugural founding chair of Department of Integrative Translational Sciences within Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope. Craig was also named deputy director of translational sciences at Beckman Research Institute and associate director of data science for City of Hope’s NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center in Los Angeles.
When I first proposed targeting PCNA (proliferating cell nuclear antigen) as a therapeutic approach, the response I got was: “No one will ever make a drug against PCNA. It’s undruggable.” The protein lacks enzymatic activity, has a disordered region, and binds to over 200 other proteins within the cell. From a traditional drug development perspective, these characteristics made PCNA an impossible target.
