Grant allows research into new cancer treatment technique

By Andrew Ta     11/1/12 7:00pm

 

On Sept. 18, assistant professor of chemistry Zachary Ball received over $200,000 from the National Cancer Institute's Provocative Questions Project to look into a novel technique with potential future implications for cancer treatment, according to the National Institute of Health's website. The grant aims to encourage innovation.

Ball said he was working with Baylor College of Medicine assistant professor of internal medicine Michele Redell and BCM professor of medicine and chief of the section of infectious diseases David Tweardy to look into using a combination of metal and organic molecules to target traditionally "undruggable" cells.

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"Most drugs target enzymes and receptors for small molecules, but there are a lot of other proteins that might play a role in cancer," Ball said. "Traditional drugs are organic molecules, and they don't target many of these other proteins very well. Using metal chemistry with organic molecules gives a stronger interaction to overcome some of the weaknesses of traditional approaches."

According to Rice graduate student Matthew Minus, who works in Ball's lab, rhodium, the focus of Ball's research, could enhance the potency of a drug by strengthening its binding to its target.

"I synthesize the drugs and their rhodium conjugates," Minus said. "We send them to our collaborators at Baylor, where they test their biological activity."

Rhodium has not been used in this context before, Ball said.

This is not Ball's first grant for this project; in 2011 he received $160,000 from the Simmons Family Foundation to develop something new that would treat acute myeloid leukemia, according to the Simmons's Collaborative Research Fund website.

"The Simmons grant facilitates getting scientists out of their comfort zones and to build new bridges in research," said Ball. "That's how I ended up working with [Redell] and [Tweardy]. I looked at the literature and they had done outstanding work on the STAT3 pathway, so I contacted them and they were interested."

STAT proteins are transcriptional regulatory proteins that deal with cell death and growth regulation. The STAT3 pathway has shown promise as a target for otherwise drug-resistant cancers, according to Ball.

"The STAT3 pathway hits a class of tumors where currently technology falls short," Ball said. "So far, there have been no successful clinical drugs using the pathway."

Ball said it would be awhile before the technique would reach any humans.

"The concept will make it easier to build probe compounds for research purposes, but it has a long way to go before it can be used on humans," Ball said. "Perhaps one day it might [be used]. It has the potential."

Jones College freshman Hannah Chen said she felt encouraged by Ball's commitment to finding a novel approach.

"It's interesting and inspiring and something I'll definitely keep with me as I look into the future when I consider a lab to do research with," Chen said.

Information on Ball's lab and projects is accessible at www.ztb.rice.edu.

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