City of Hope and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, the only Historically Black Graduate Institution west of the Mississippi River and one of only four Historically Black Medical Schools, announced the launch of a new partnership to educate a more diverse workforce in specialized medicine through internships, curriculum, training, mentorships, joint research projects, and more.
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.
