| Grant ID | RP180880 |
| Awarded On | August 24, 2018 |
| Title | Targeting BRAF- and RAS-Mutant Cancers by Small Molecule-Induced Proteolysis of ERK1/2 |
| Program | Academic Research |
| Award Mechanism | High Impact/High Risk |
| Institution/Organization | The University of Texas at Austin |
| Principal Investigator/Program Director | Kevin Dalby |
| Cancer Sites | Colorectal, Lung and Bronchus, Melanoma |
| Contracted Amount | $200,000 |
| Lay Summary |
Melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer killing approximately ten thousand Americans per year, with a disproportionate number residing in Texas. Diagnoses are expected to increase by 26% over the next 16 years, and will have a proportionally greater impact on young adults as well as on African-American and Hispanic populations in Texas. There is an urgent need for novel drugs for treating patients with drug-resistant melanomas. The focus of this proposal is to address this unmet medical need and to develop an entirely novel therapeutic modality with a triple mechanism of action against an enzyme called ERK which is critical for melanoma. These mechanisms are – 1) inhibiting ERK activation,... |