News: Signal Transduction and Chemical Biology Research Program

Finding gives boost to fighting cancer through cell metabolism

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.

Changes in enzymes involved in lysophospholipid signaling can activate a pathway implicated in development of cancer, a recent study suggests.

Carlos F. Lopez, PhD, and colleagues propose a new “conveyor belt” mechanism for how cellular signaling is amplified, or strengthened, as signals are handed off from one enzyme to the next.

A recent study in Nature Communications reveals new insights about the function of the exocyst – a crucial cellular protein complex involved in vesicle trafficking.

A recent study reveals how cellular structures called ‘stress granules’ help cells evade death. The findings may lead to new strategies for improving the efficacy of cancer therapy.

A trans-institutional team of researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University has received an $11 million Cancer Moonshot grant to build a single-cell resolution atlas to map out the routes that benign colonic polyps take to progress to colorectal cancer.

Vanderbilt researchers have identified a previously undetected type of histone modification that may have implications for cancer and other conditions.

The Sonic hedgehog protein plays a crucial role in the development of brain cells that may be the source of some types of pediatric brain tumors, a recent study reports.

A recent study on how cellular proteins known as “multidrug transporters” work may inform the development of novel anti-cancer and anti-bacterial drugs that can overcome resistance.