Professor Hing Leung. Beaston Centre, Glasgow University
NEW TREATMENT DEVELOPMENT:
Translational research awarded £73,690, to last 24 months.
Developing a possible drug treatment for aggressive prostate cancer.
Title of project: Validation of the MEK5/ERK5 pathway as a target for therapy in prostate cancer.
The project
Professor Leung’s team is going to investigate the MEK5/ERK5 signalling pathway inside cells. The research will look at how this pathway contributes to cancer development, and whether it could act as a potential target for prostate cancer treatment.
Why we funded it
The MEK5/ERK5 proteins are important for messaging within normal cells but abnormally high levels of MEK5 and ERK5 proteins are present in prostate cancer cells. This abnormal expression is strongly associated with aggressive cancer and reduced patient survival time. Medicines that influence the way MEK5/ERK5 work may have important benefits as clinical treatment, and may even have implications for other cancer types.