This week we profile a recent publication in Science Translational Medicine
from the laboratory of Dr. Andrew Hsieh (pictured, center) at Fred Hutch.
Can you provide a brief overview of your lab’s current research focus?
Our goal is to comprehensively delineate the fundamental role of mRNA translation in normal cell physiology, cancer etiology, and cancer progression. Armed with this knowledge, we are defining the next generation of therapeutic vulnerabilities in disorders associated with translation deregulation such as prostate cancer and bladder cancer.
What is the significance of the findings in this publication?
Most prostate cancers are initially addicted to androgens and the androgen receptor, which they use to grow. However, a new forum of androgen receptor deficient prostate cancers are now on the rise. Our laboratory has discovered a new way by which prostate cancers can grow without androgens, namely through taking over the process of protein synthesis. Importantly, we show that this can be targeted by drugs provide a potentially exciting new therapeutic opportunity for patients with advanced prostate cancer. For a great piece on this work, please take a look at this article.
What are the next steps for this research?
Currently there are no FDA approved drugs to target the vulnerability we have discovered. As such, a major focus in the lab is to develop new ways to target abnormal protein synthesis in prostate cancer through collaborations with medicinal chemists.
