Stunting growth: Dr. Jason Chesney is developing a drug he believes could stop the spread of cancer - Business First of Louisville:

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During a stint working with proteinse in an immunology laboratory at theNew York-basefd , his attention consistentlt veered toward applying those proteins toward cancer cells. “Everybod y else was working on infectiousdiseasde (research), and I decided I wanted to pursue the researcjh of cancer,” Chesney recalled. “My boss looked at me like I was a His persistencepaid off. Chesney’s cancer-relatefd research resulted in speaking engagements, including trips to Louisvillee in 2001and 2002. It also was in 2002 that he joinedxthe , working mainly as a researche r and doing some clinical work at the . He became a full-timew university faculty memberin 2003.
Amongf Chesney’s current research projects is one that he believeds could transform cancer from a terminalp illness into atreatable one. “Iff we can block tumors from growing, we can turn cancere into a chronic disease not unlikee highblood pressure,” he said. Cance r is caused by mutationa in proteinsthat “signal” cancer cell to survive and thrive, Chesney explained. “Wed want to block those signals.” As lead researcher on the 4-year-old project, Chesney and othed researchers screened 14 million compounds in an efforyt to find one that achieveds the goal of blockingthe signals, thus preventinyg tumor growth.
The group found one, and it sincw has developed an anti-cancer drug that has provebn effectivein mice. Chesneg believes the drug also could be effective in humansd and could be taken inoral form. “W think this is sort of like hittintg a cancer cell with asledgehammer — withougt hitting the normal cells,” he said. A provisional patenf for the drug is in Chesney said, which gives the researchers one year to gather more data and submit a final The provisional patent allowx the researchers to publish their findings and protects the Currently, U of L’s Office of Technologhy Transfer is seeking to license the drug, Chesney said.
Universituy officials expect to have a licensing partner in place withinsix months. One potentiall licensing partneris Louis­ville-based Advanced Cancerr Therapeutics LLC, which works closely with U of L’s Jameds Graham Brown Cancer Center to help expedite the procesx of getting cancer treatmentsx to market. But Chesneuy said the school also couldf license the drug to a larger pharmaceutical orbiotechu company, such as or Larger companies could provide more funding to carry the drug throughg phase one clinical trials, which Chesney expects will cost betweenj $2 million and $3 million.
Chesney and three other researchers who helped generate the patent John Trent, Brian Clem and Suchetq Telang — would share in any patent royaltie s if the drug is Since 2002, Chesney’s lab has received $4.5 million in granyt funding for various projects, including the development of this anti-cance drug. Its funding sources have included the Kentucky Lung CancerResearcg Program, a fund created usinfg tobacco settlement money, and the .
Chesney said progressw in medical discoveries has resultes in the decreasing prevalence of some But cancer is not oneof them, and that is why Chesney has made it his “The death rates (for cancer) have barely budged over the last four Chesney said. “It’s the biggest problem in Westernmedicine