Dr. Michelle Garrett
Division of Cancer Therapeutics, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton
Monday 28th October, 4.00 p.m. in Stacey Lecture Theatre 1
The focus of this talk will be small molecule drug discovery for the treatment of cancer, where the key challenge is to produce a molecule (chemistry) that can potentially kill or inhibit the growth of cancer cells in the human body (biology) and ultimately to demonstrate a benefit to patients in the clinic. The perspective provided in this talk will highlight the opportunities and benefits of undertaking small molecule anticancer drug discovery in the academic setting. Importantly, there will be an emphasis on how the productive interplay of chemistry and biology research can result in both useful drug molecules and new scientific discoveries, highlighting the role of high quality chemical tool compounds for research.
Typical scientific questions asked during the lifetime of a cancer drug discovery project include: What makes a good cancer drug target? How can we define and follow the biological activity of our molecules and choose which to progress? What does chemical optimisation to generate a candidate drug involve? What opportunities for new biological research are presented during a drug discovery project? How can the understanding of cancer target biology change during the lifetime of a project?
AKT(PKB) is a serine/threonine kinase on the PI3Kinase signalling pathway, which is deregulated in multiple forms of cancer. This talk will explain how AKT was taken all the way from target selection through to the identification of two drug candidates that are now in the clinic, whilst also providing novel insights into cell biology.