The American Cancer Society (ACS) recently awarded the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine $1.26M through three grants that support exploratory research and provide career development activities for students who are pursuing a doctoral degree in a STEM discipline or health profession.

Deborah Lang, PhD, associate professor of dermatology, and Rachel Flynn, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology, physiology & biophysics, each received a $300,000 Discovery Boost Grant. Lang’s research, “Exploring roles for PAX3 in regulating gene expression on a posttranscriptional level,” will investigate the role of PAX3—a protein that directs melanocytes to maintain stem cells andto lineage-specify—in stems cells and cancer. Cancer subverts these normal PAX3 stem cell maintenance roles to promote melanoma growth and metastasis.

Lang previously discovered several PAX3- interacting proteins that play roles in RNA control and degradation. With support from the ACS, she will further investigate the relationship between PAX3 and lineage- specific RNA regulation. She aims to target this pathway to hinder disease progression or support stem cell multipotency, which will provide an attractive target for therapy.

Through her project, “Defining the replication stress response in the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres Pathway,” Flynn will investigate the activation of the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres pathway (ALT). Cancer cells use ALT to promote cellular immortality. This process is active in approximately 10% of all human cancers and approximately 60% of aggressive forms of cancer including osteosarcoma, glioma, and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Flynn will define the molecular mechanisms that regulate ALT activity to identify tractable therapeutic targets in the treatment of ALT- positive cancers.

Flynn also received $660,000 to implement a Diversity in Cancer Research Post-Baccalaureate Fellows Program to expand diversity in the cancer research workforce by increasing the number of underrepresented groups in the biomedical field. The Boston University-Boston Medical Center Cancer Center will provide training in academics, research, and professional development to four fellows over two years. “We hope that after participating in this program, fellows are well positioned to succeed in the cancer research workforce,” Flynn says.