Panneerdoss Subbarayalu, PhD, to receive NIH, NCI R21 Grant, “Targeting the RNA Modifying Enzyme ALKBH5 in Medulloblastoma

June 5, 2023

 Project Title: Targeting the RNA modifying enzyme ALKBH5 in Medulloblastoma Principal Investigator: Panneerdoss Subbarayalu Co-Investigators: Manjeet Rao, PhD, Andrew Brenner, MD, PhD., Peter Houghton, PhD. Funding Agency: National Institutes of Health, NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain cancer in children. Despite the progress in treating medulloblastoma, the 5-year survival rate for high-risk [...]

ELife: Defining function of wild-type and three patient specific TP53 mutations in a zebrafish model of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (Ignatius Lab, Houghton Lab, Libich Lab, Chen, Tomlinson)

June 2, 2023

 Jiangfei Chen Kunal Baxi Amanda E Lipsitt Nicole Rae Hensch Long Wang Prethish Sreenivas Paulomi Modi Xiang Ru Zhao Antoine Baudin Daniel G Robledo Abhik Bandyopadhyay Aaron Sugalski Anil K Challa Dias Kurmashev Andrea R Gilbert Gail E Tomlinson Peter Houghton Yidong Chen Madeline N Hayes Eleanor Y Chen David S Libich Myron S Ignatius [...]

Cell Reports: EWSR1 Maintains Centromere Identity (Kitagawa & Houghton labs)

May 30, 2023

 Risa Kitagawa 1, Yohei Niikura 1 2, Argentina Becker 1 3, Peter J. Houghton 1, Katsumi Kitagawa 1 4 Highlights EWSR1 is required to maintain CENP-A at the centromere in interphase cells EWSR1 binds to CENP-A through the SYGQ2 region, important for phase separation EWSR1 binds to R loops in vitro through its RNA-recognition motif (RRM) EWSR1 protects CENP-A in the centromeric chromatin by binding to centromeric RNAs Summary The centromere is essential [...]

Cell Reports: Nitric Oxide Suppression by Secreted Frizzled-Related Protein 2 Drives Retinoblastoma (Shiio & Houghton Labs)

March 17, 2023

 Panneerselvam Jayabal 1, Fuchun Zhou 1, Xiuye Ma 1, Kathryn M. Bondra 1, Barron Blackman 1, Susan T. Weintraub 2 3, Yidong Chen 1 3 4, Patricia Chévez-Barrios 5, Peter J. Houghton 1 3 6, Brenda Gallie 7, Yuzuru Shiio 1 2 3 8 Highlights The autocrine signaling mediated by SFRP2 drives retinoblastoma SFRP2 signaling suppresses NO production and maintains retinoblastoma growth CXADR serves as the receptor for SFRP2 Targeting SFRP2 results in NO production and suppression of retinoblastoma growth Summary Retinoblastoma is a cancer of the infant retina primarily driven by the loss of [...]

Cancer Research: Sequential Targeting of Retinoblastoma and DNA Synthesis Pathways Is a Therapeutic Strategy for Sarcomas That Can Be Monitored in Real Time (Houghton)

March 15, 2023

 Tuyen Duong;Thanh Nguyen; Yan Wang;  Tuyen N. Bui; Rossana Lazcano;  Davis R. Ingram;  Min Yi; Varshini Vakulabharanam; Linjie Luo; Marc A. Pina; Cansu Karakas ; Mi Li; Nicole M. Kettner; Neeta Somaiah; Peter J. Hougton; Osama Mawlawi; Alexander J. Lazar; Kelly K. Hunt; Khandan Keyomarsi Abstract Treatment strategies with a strong scientific rationale based on specific [...]

Molecular Cancer Theraputics: Sensitization to Ionizing Radiation by MEK Inhibition Is Dependent on SNAI2 in Fusion-Negative Rhabdomyosarcoma (Ignatius, Vaseva, Houghton Labs)

January 3, 2023

 Nicole R. Hensch, Kathryn Bondra, Long Wang, Prethish Sreenivas, Xiang R. Zhao, Paulomi Modi, Angelina V. Vaseva, Peter J. Houghton, Myron S. Ignatius Abstract In fusion-negative rhabdomyosarcoma (FN-RMS), a pediatric malignancy with skeletal muscle characteristics, >90% of high-risk patients have mutations that activate the RAS/MEK signaling pathway. We recently discovered that SNAI2, in addition to [...]

Nature Communications: Genomic disparities between cancers in adolescent and young adults and in older adults (Wang, Langevin, Houghton, & Zheng)

December 6, 2022

 Xiaojing Wang, Anne-Marie Langevin, Peter J. Houghton & Siyuan Zheng Cancers cause significant mortality and morbidity in adolescents and young adults (AYAs), but their biological underpinnings are incompletely understood. Here, we analyze clinical and genomic disparities between AYAs and older adults (OAs) in more than 100,000 cancer patients. We find significant differences in clinical presentation between [...]

Business Wire: Lantern Pharma to Host Virtual KOL Webinar on the Treatment of Pediatric Cancers During Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, featuring Peter Houghton, Ph.D.

September 20, 2022

 Webinar to be hosted on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, at 12:00 p.m. ET, register here. Dr. Houghton will discuss challenges in drug development for pediatric cancers and preliminary results from Lantern’s drug candidates in preclinical pediatric cancer models with unmet clinical needs. September 19, 2022 08:50 AM Eastern Daylight Time DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lantern Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: [...]