REPOST: UT Health SA Newsroom
Contact: Steven Lee, (210) 450-3823, lees22@uthscsa.edu
Content provided by Jane Alvarez Hernandez
Principal investigator: David Libich, PhD
Associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology in the Long School of Medicine and investigator with the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute
Award amount $250,000
Ewing sarcoma is a rare and aggressive cancer that primarily affects children and teenagers. While current treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation and surgery can save lives, they can also cause serious long-term health problems. Sadly, many young patients with advanced or recurring disease do not survive.
A major reason progress has been slow is that the main protein that drives this cancer, EWS::FLI1, does not have a stable shape, making it extremely difficult to target with traditional drugs.
“We will study how EWS::FLI1 interacts with other proteins inside the cell, using powerful imaging methods that can look at proteins at the level of individual atoms, then use advanced computer models, including artificial intelligence, to design small, engineered proteins that latch onto EWS::FLI1 in a highly specific way,” Libich said. “These synthetic proteins will act like precision tools that can recognize and bind the cancer-causing protein, opening the door to future therapies that could block its activity or help the cell remove it.
“If successful,” he said, “this work will provide the first clear structural map of how EWS::FLI1 works and create the first generation of molecules designed specifically to target it. This work has the potential to lay the foundation for safer, more targeted treatments that improve survival and long-term quality of life for children with cancer.”