News: Drug Discovery

A recent study provides clinicians genomic guidance for surveillance of targeted therapy resistance in patients with EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer — and more importantly — another drug option when resistance occurs.

Uncontrolled activation of RAS causes approximately a third of all tumors and helps cancerous cells evade anti-cancer drugs. Vanderbilt researchers have identified small molecules that target this pathway and further defined how these small molecule compounds work.

Vanderbilt researchers have developed a new process that can rapidly and inexpensively identify personalized cancer drugs derived from nature.

Boehringer Ingelheim and Vanderbilt University recently announced the expansion of their successful existing collaboration to develop novel anti-cancer compounds.

A recent study by Dai Chung, M.D., and colleagues suggests new therapeutic options for Ewing sarcoma, a type of rare, aggressive childhood cancer.

The signaling protein Aurora kinase A (AURKA) is overexpressed in several cancer types and has diverse oncogenic functions, making it an attractive druggable cancer target. Wael El-Rifai, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues are exploring a role for AURKA in upper gastrointestinal cancers, which are characterized by poor patient survival and resistance to chemotherapy. Using in vitro […]

More than a decade after the anti-inflammatory drugs Vioxx and Bextra were pulled from the market because of a heightened risk of heart attack and stroke in some patients, COX-2 inhibitors may be on the verge of a comeback, this time as anti-cancer agents. That’s due in part to the persistence of researchers at Vanderbilt […]

Metastatic pancreatic cancer — cancer that has spread from the pancreas to other tissues and is responsible for most patient deaths — changes its metabolism and is “reprogrammed” for optimal malignancy, according to new findings reported Jan. 16 in Nature Genetics. It may be possible to reverse the malignant reprogramming to treat metastatic pancreatic cancer, […]

The Robert J. Kleberg Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation has awarded a $3 million grant to Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) investigators in support of VICC’s drug discovery program. The gift awarded over the next three years from the private, San Antonio, Texas-based foundation will enable VICC researchers to pursue the development of new compounds […]

Vanderbilt University has been selected as one of seven Dedicated Centers in the nation for the next phase of the Chemical Biology Consortium (CBC), a national network of scientists on the leading edge of cancer drug discovery. Vanderbilt has been part of the CBC since the consortium was established in 2009 as the discovery engine […]