Developing Therapeutics That Target RAD51 to Treat Leukemia and Lymphoma

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Genomic instability is a hallmark of cancer, yet is underdeveloped as a therapeutic target area The central goal of this program is to develop new cancer therapeutics that target genomic instability as a hallmark of cancer cells, bringing new, cancer-cell selective treatments to the clinical oncology market. Two key challenges in current cancer therapy are minimizing the side effects associated with chemotherapy; and preventing tumor cell evolution by acquired mutations that drive cancer progression and therapy resistance. Therapies that target genomic instability mechanisms have the potential to meet these critical clinical challenges. In recent years, the B-cell specific DNA mutase/recombinase Activation Induced Cytidine Deaminase (AID) has been implicated as a driver of oncogenic genomic instability. While its expression is normally restricted to activated, germinal center B-cells, AID is also overexpressed in a range of human neoplasms, especially B-cell lymphom