Center for Cancer Experimental Therapeutics
Program
Phase I (2000-2005) focused on developing research infrastructure and providing junior investigators with formal mentoring and research project funding to help them acquire preliminary data and successfully compete for independent research grant support.
Phase II (2006-2010) was intended to strengthen the center through further improvements in research infrastructure and continuing development and support of a critical mass of investigators with shared scientific interests. The grant placed an emphasis on junior faculty to develop and hone their research programs and partnered them with established, active, senior faculty who served as mentors. At any given time, a total of 37 faculty and more than 60 researchers have been supported by this grant annually. Additional funding in support of the grant's efforts was supplied by the University of Kansas and the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation.
The former principal investigator of the grant, Dr. Gunda Georg, was awarded two consecutive five-year (2000-2010), $10 million grants. Leadership of the grant was passed to Dr. Barbara Timmermann in January 2007 when Dr. Georg assumed the chair of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Minnesota.
Phase III (2010-2015) objectives were to (1) provide support for maintaining COBRE research cores developed during phases I and II as they were essential for the continuing conduct of basic, clinical, translational research, and/or community based research at the institution, and (2) sustain a collaborative, multidisciplinary research environment by providing support for research pilot projects and mentoring and training components. The emphasis was focused on continued development of the two core laboratories, High Throughput Screening and Synthetic Medicinal Chemistry. The grant also provided funds for Pilot Projects for up to $125,000 total for two years. Strong scientific proposals at the cutting edge of cancer research were chosen to help facilitate the efforts of the NCI-designated Cancer Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Cores and Projects
Core A - Administration
Core A provided the overall scientific leadership, mentoring, and the fiscal and general management of the program. This core administered the annual RFA process, managed the monthly COBRE meetings, the internal and external advisory board meetings, and all fiscal and administrative matters. Core A also provided the funding for First Awards, and for the selection and purchase of equipment to support subproject research. In addition, annual COBRE symposia/workshops/courses were organized or co-organized, and several seminars were sponsored by Core A.
Core B - High Throughput Screening
Core B supported the establishment of a laboratory dedicated to high throughput screening (HTS) of complex chemical libraries from existing libraries, and compounds and libraries prepared in Core C for the identification of bioactive compounds. The generation and analysis of novel compounds in Core C, and the development of methods for screening in Core B, offered a unique opportunity for joining two previously separate areas of research into a combined effort. The High Throughput Screening Laboratory is still active today and provides services to biomedical researchers in Kansas and beyond.
Core C - Medicinal Chemistry
Core C was a university-based drug discovery facility with a state-of-the-art infrastructure for pharmaceutical research. The Core provided medicinal, synthetic, and combinatorial chemistry support for Core B and COBRE investigators. The support involved the optimization of compounds, found by high throughput screening for potency, and selectivity. Core C also worked closely with Core A on planning and conducting short courses, workshops, and seminars to support the research effort through training of faculty, students, postdocs and research personnel. The Synthetic Chemical Biology Core Facility established by COBRE CCET is still active today being expanded.
COBRE First Awards 2010
- Christer Aakeröy
- Xuan Zhang
COBRE Projects 2010
- Alexander Beeser
- Mark Cohen
- Suman Kambhampati
- Jun Li
- Masaaki Tamura
COBRE First Awards 2009
- Christer Aakeröy
- Suman Kambhampati
- Jun Li
- Masaaki Tamura
- Xuan Zhang
COBRE Projects 2009
- Alexander Beeser
- Mark Cohen
- Laird Forrest
- Qize Wei
COBRE First Awards 2008
- Christer Aakeröy
- Stefan Bossmann, Viktor Chikan, Peter Smith
- Guoli Dai
- Benyi Li
COBRE Projects 2008
- Alexander Beeser
- Mark Cohen
- Laird Forrest
- Qize Wei
- Rachel Zufferey
COBRE Projects 2007
- Alexander Beeser
- Mark Cohen
- Laird Forrest
- Qize Wei
COBRE First Awards 2007
- Stefan Bossmann, Viktor Chikan, Peter Smith
- Guoli Dai
- David Davido
- Rebecca Hays
- Ryszard Jankowiak
- Benyi Li
COBRE Projects 2007
- Yoshiaki Azuma
- Alexander Beeser
- Apurba Dutta
- Laird Forrest
- Qize Wei
COBRE First Awards 2006
- Cory Berkland
- Grace Guo
- Ryszard Jankowiak
- Benyi Li
COBRE Projects 2006
- Apurba Dutta
- Edina Harsay
- Minae Mure
- Sandra Vigil-Cruz
- Jay Vivian
COBRE First Awards - 2005
- Cory Berkland
- Apurba Dutta
- Benyi Li
COBRE Projects - 2005
- Snigdha Banerjee
- Edina Harsay
- Minae Mure
- Sandra Vigil-Cruz
- Qizhuang Ye
COBRE Projects - 2004
- Snigdha Banerjee
- Kristi Neufeld
- Lisa Timmons
- Sandra Vigil-Cruz
- Qizhuang Ye
COBRE First Awards - 2004
- George Wang
COBRE Projects - 2003
- Snigdha Banerjee
- Kristi Neufeld
- Lisa Timmons
- Sandra Vigil-Cruz
- Robert Ward
- Qizhuang Ye
COBRE First Awards - 2003
- Sunil David
- Chris Gamblin
- Kathy Mitchell
- Qizhuang Ye
COBRE Projects - 2002
- Robert Cohen
- Kathy Suprenant
- Lisa Timmons
- Scott Todd
- Sandra Vigil-Cruz
COBRE First Awards - 2002
- Katsura Asano
- Kathy Mitchell
- Lisa Timmons
- Sandra Vigil-Cruz
- Anna Zolkiewska
COBRE First Awards - 2001
- Katsuru Asano
- Lorena Passarelli
- Diane Persons
- Gregory Vanden Heuvel
- Anna Zolkiewska
COBRE Projects - 2000
- Sandra Quackenbush
- Kathy Roby
- Kathy Suprenant & Erik Lundquist
- Scott Todd
COBRE Pilot Projects Nov. 1, 2010 to Oct. 31, 2012
- Duy Hua - KSU
"Identifying the molecular target of anti-breast cancer agents enhancing gap junctional intercellular communication" - John Karanicolas - KU
"Identifying inhibitors of protein-protein interactions using poccket optimization" - Gerald Reeck - KSU
"Armet tight-binding ligans in drug development"
COBRE Pilot Projects June 1, 2011 to May 31, 2013
- Qi Chen - KUMC
"Targeting EMT for identification of inhibitors of cancer stem cells by high-throughput screening" - Liang Xu - KU
"Novel Beclin-mimetics for molecular cancer therapy via modulating autophagy"
COBRE Pilot Projects June 1, 2012 to May 31, 2015
- Tomoo Iwakuma - KUMC
"Discovering drugs that induce degradation of oncogenic mutant p53" - Kristi Neufeld - KU
"Novel molecular cancer therapy targeting Musashi"
COBRE Pilot Projects June 1, 2013 to May 31, 2015
- Yong Zeng - KU
"High-throughput glynomic profiling in ovarian cancer using integrated microfluidic lectin arrays" - David Weis - KU
"Proteome-scale discovery of ligands targeting ezrin, an osteosarcoma target"
COBRE Pilot Project June 1, 2014 to May 31, 2015
- Dan Dixon - KUMC
"Discovering drugs that induce oncogenic mRNA degradation"
People
| Name | COBRE CCET Role | Title/ Dept | Institution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barbara Timmerman, PhD | Program Director 2010-2015 | Professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry | University of Kansas |
| Gunda Georg, PhD | Program Director 2000-2010 | Professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry | University of Kansas |
| Richard Himes, PhD | Program Coordinator | Emeritus Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences | University of Kansas |
| Amy Rork | Program Assistant | COBRE CCET | University of Kansas |
| Linda Carlyle | Accountant | Higuchi Biosciences Center | University of Kansas |
| Name | Title | Department | Institution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dale Boger, PhD | Professor | Department of Chemistry | Scripps Research Institute |
| Mary Ann Jordan, PhD | Adjunct Professor | Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology | Neurosciences Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Leanne Wiedemann, PhD | Staff Scientist | Stowers Institute for Medical Research |