Dr. Glick was recently awarded a 5 year 1.92 million dollar RO1 grant from the National Cancer Institute entitled “IRE1a: a Conditional Tumor Suppressor”
Advanced cancers exhibit high levels of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress due to hypoxia, nutrient deprivation, metabolic changes and other effects of the tumor microenvironment. Signaling pathways of the unfolded protein response (UPR) that allow tumor cells to adapt to ER stress can enhance survival and promote malignancy. Little is known how ER stress signaling pathways influence initial stages of cancer development. The goal of this grant is to examine the role of one of the master regulators of the UPR, the IRE1a dual kinase/endoribonuclease, in the response of normal epithelial cells to Ras oncogene activation, and its role in Ras-driven cancer.
“What this said to us is that possibly, by manipulating IRE1 we can potentially drive tumor cells to self-terminate.”
http://agsci.psu.edu/magazine/articles/2017/fall-winter/protein-power