Tag Archives: francisco

Drug strategy blocks leading driver of cancer

Using a new strategy, UC San Francisco researchers have succeeded in making small molecules that irreversibly target a mutant form of this protein, called ras, without binding to the normal form. This feature distinguishes the molecules from all other targeted drug treatments in cancer, according to the researchers. When tested on human lung cancer cells grown in culture, the molecules efficiently killed the ras-driven cancer cells. …

‘Undruggable’ mutation meets its match

Now, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have identified and exploited a newfound "Achilles heel" in K-Ras. The weak point is a newly discovered "pocket," or binding site, identified by HHMI investigator Kevan M. Shokat and colleagues. Shokat and his team have designed a chemical compound that fits inside this pocket and inhibits the normal activity of mutant K-Ras, but leaves the normal protein untouched…

Earlier onset of puberty in girls linked to obesity

Published online Nov. 4, the multi-institutional study strengthens a growing body of research documenting the earlier onset of puberty in girls of all races. "The impact of earlier maturation in girls has important clinical implications involving psychosocial and biologic outcomes," said Frank Biro, MD, lead investigator and a physician in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. "The current study suggests clinicians may need to redefine the ages for both early and late maturation in girls." Girls with earlier maturation are at risk for a multitude of challenges, including lower self-esteem, higher rates of depression, norm-breaking behaviors and lower academic achievement. …

Three of four cases of bladder cancer display mutations in the same gene

The study was led by Francisco X. Real, head of the Epithelial Carcinogenesis Group at CNIO, together with Nuria Malats, the head of the Genetic & Molecular Epidemiology Group at CNIO, as well as other European groups, especially Yves Allory, a pathologist at the Mondor Hospital (Créteil, Paris, France), who is on a sabbatical year with Real and Malats’s groups at CNIO, and Ellen Zwarthoff’s group at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam. The results are published in the online version of the journal European Urology. …

Why tumors become drug-resistant

A new study from MIT reveals that much of this resistance develops because a protein called AXL helps cancer cells to circumvent the effects of ErbB inhibitors, allowing them to grow unchecked. The findings suggest that combining drugs that target AXL and ErbB receptors could offer a better way to fight tumors, says Doug Lauffenburger, the Ford Professor of Bioengineering, head of MIT’s Department of Biological Engineering and an affiliate member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research…