Researchers throughout the state of Kansas will now be fighting cancer from several different fronts, thanks to a group of scientists led by Gunda Georg, director of the Drug Discovery Program of the HBC and the Cancer Experimental Therapeutics group. Georg, a university distinguished professor of medicinal chemistry at KU, assembled a proposal that has led to a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant from the National Institutes of Health. The five-year, $9.9 million grant will bring together researchers from KU, the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas State University and Emporia State University to establish a Center for Cancer Experimental Therapeutics. The researchers also will receive matching funds from KU and the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation. HBC will administer the grant.

Nineteen scientists from the state schools will fight cancer through several different projects. One project will perform research into anti-cancer drugs that treat ovarian cancer. Another will research anti-cancer drugs to treat a form of childhood leukemia. Also, scientists will work with researchers at the University of Costa Rica, who will provide natural products and extracts that may lead to the development of anti-cancer agents

As the principal investigator of the grant, Georg spent months combing through resumes and proposals from junior faculty researchers at the various institutions. She discovered that many of the scientists had overlapping research that could benefit from collaboration and realized that many of the younger researchers could benefit immensely from a mentoring program with senior researchers. "There is a tremendous interest in collaborative work among the researchers in Kansas," Georg said. "When this opportunity came along, we had already formed the Experimental Therapeutics Program in the Kansas Cancer Institute. We already had a goal-we knew where we wanted to go. Personally, I’m delighted we can build a critical mass of cancer researchers in Kansas. One of our goals is the establishment of an NCI-designated cancer center at the KU Medical Center, which will affect clinical care of cancer patients in the long run."

Specifically, the grant will fund cancer research by junior faculty at the various institutions. "It’s really important for these faculty members to get this money early in their career, because it will really help them get their research programs going," Georg said.

One researcher whose work was one of the projects cited in the grant proposal is Sandra Quackenbush. Quackenbush, assistant professor of molecular biosciences at KU, will use the grant funding to continue her research on seasonal tumors in the walleye fish that are caused by a virus. One of the viral proteins is related to cellular protein found in some human tumors. By investigating the mechanisms responsible for the appearance and regression of the tumor in fish, Quackenbush hopes to eventually gain insight into treatment for humans.

Quackenbush began her research with the walleye while carrying out post-doctoral work at Cornell University. For those familiar with the fish, tumors are not uncommon. But not until someone examined the growths and found what appeared to be particles of a retrovirus, or a tumor-causing virus, did researchers understand the potential the fish provided for human cancer research. In the walleye, the tumors are not fatal. They appear on the animals in the fall, and then the following spring when the fish spawn, the tumors regress and fall off. Quackenbush and other scientists are interested in what makes the walleye tumor cells die.

Fortunately for her and her staff of researchers, the tumor cells can be reproduced experimentally. The retrovirus found within the tumor cells produces a number of accessory proteins, one of which may be responsible for tumor development.

This particular protein is similar to normal cellular protein. In many human tumors, this protein is overexpressed and may be involved in oncogenesis, or tumor formation. "Now we have a viral protein that we can easily isolate and study to determine its role in making tumors," said Quackenbush. "We have a nice tool to begin measuring the difference between normal and tumor cells. At the molecular level, we can understand how the virus alters a normal cell to make it a cancer cell."

Quackenbush believes this new opportunity to work with Georg and other medicinal chemists will add an important new dimension to her research. "There’s a good possibility that, as a team, we will be able to identify different compounds that may interfere with the ability of these isolated viral proteins to cause tumors. Had I done this on my own, I probably wouldn’t have been able to pursue that area of research."

The COBRE grant will fund more than just the research projects already mentioned. Georg set aside $1.5 million of the COBRE grant to create an award fund called First Award to encourage the research of other junior faculty members. Fifteen awards will be given over five years to faculty members who can then fund their work and support a staff of graduate and post-doctoral researchers for up to two years. Along with jump-starting such projects, the grant again will connect junior faculty with some of the most experienced researchers in this area through a mentoring program.

Lester Mitscher, university distinguished professor of medicinal chemistry at KU, will serve as a mentor on two separate projects. Mitscher, who recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Chemical Society, said he is looking forward to working with the younger researchers. "It’s particularly useful for younger faculty to have the chance to talk to people who have had success over the years and to bounce ideas off of them-it should increase their batting average, so to speak," he said. Mitscher also said that he is excited to continue collaborating with researchers throughout the state. "We generally feel our competition is not with each other, but with the rest of the world," he said.