Douglas Faller Receives Grant to Research Melanoma
Douglas V. Faller, MD, director of the Boston University/Boston Medical Center Cancer Research Center, has been awarded a research grant from the Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA). The grant will help Faller, professor of medicine, biochemistry, pediatrics, microbiology, pathology and laboratory medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), continue his research focused on uncovering novel, targeted approaches to treat melanoma.
Faller is one of 22 researchers from leading academic research institutions around the world receiving a grant from the MRA to develop improved means to prevent, detect and treat deadly skin cancer.
Previous research by others has shown that activating mutations of a protein called N-RAS, or RAS-related pathways, are found in more than 90 percent of melanoma cases. Mutated, activated N-RAS is an attractive therapeutic target for melanoma, but approaches aimed directly at RAS or its critical signaling pathways, which are required for the viability of normal cells, have had very limited success.
The “synthetic lethality” approach being explored by Faller and his colleagues exploits an Achilles’ heel of melanoma cells containing a mutated, activated N-RAS – the absolute requirement for a survival pathway mediated by PKC-delta. Normal cells and tissues do not require PKC-delta for growth and development. This tactic hijacks the RAS-signaling pathway, which normally promotes melanoma and tumor cell growth.
“Our approach could have broad potential in treating many forms of melanoma,” said Faller, who also is a physician in hematology/oncology at BMC. “This grant will help us better understand the molecular forces involved with melanoma progression, which could help lead to novel treatments against the disease.”
Faller received his MD from Harvard Medical School and PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Other research focus areas include the development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of cancers caused by viruses, and for the treatment of genetic diseases such as sickle cell disease, thalassemia, and cystic fibrosis.
”The disturbing increase in incidence of melanoma, especially among young people, lends even greater urgency to finding new tools and treatments for a disease that every year is diagnosed among almost 80,000 people and is responsible for more than 9,000 deaths in the US alone,” said Wendy K.D. Selig, President and CEO of MRA. “We are inspired by the exciting progress that is finally occurring in the field and delighted by the exceptional caliber of proposals, investigators, and institutions we are able to support through our 2012 grants.”
About the Boston University/Boston Medical Center Cancer Research Center
The BU/BMC Cancer Center comprises 101 faculty members from the Medical and Charles River Campuses. The research of Cancer Center members ranges from basic laboratory science to early translational and clinical research to population and environmental studies and spans the continuum from cancer prevention, screening, and diagnosis through treatment and survivorship. Scientific strengths include epidemiology, behavioral science, cancer prevention and control, environmental health, cancer disparities research, cancer cellular and molecular biology, genomics, hormone-responsive cancers, environmental toxins, airways cancers and the development of novel therapeutics.