Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/863733
10 | S U M M E R 2 0 1 7 RESEARCHERS AT COM CREATE SYNTHETIC PROTEIN TO BLOCK CANCERS ESEARCHERS FROM THE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE have identified a new way to block the action of the RAS oncogene, the most commonly mutated oncogene in human cancers. RAS mutations are found in nearly 30 percent of all cancers, including more than 90 percent of pancreatic cancers and high percentages of colon cancer, lung cancer and melanoma. John O'Bryan, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology at the COM, led a team of researchers who discovered that a synthetic binding protein they call "NS1 monobody," which they created in the lab, can block the activity of oncogenic RAS, thereby inhibiting RAS-mediated signaling and oncogenic transformation. "We used monobody technology, a type of protein-engineering technology, to identify regions of RAS that are critical for its function," says O'Bryan, a member of the University of Illinois Cancer Center who also holds an appointment at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago. "Development of effective RAS inhibitors represents a 'holy grail' in cancer biology." Monobody technology was developed by Shohei Koide, a co- author on the study who is professor of biochemistry and molecular pharmacology at New York University. O'Bryan says the findings, published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, provide important insight into long- standing questions about how to potentially block the action of mutant RAS in cancers. R NEUROREPOSITORY WILL STORE 'BIG DATA' FOR NEUROLOGICAL RESEARCH HE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE CHICAGO CAMPUS in February celebrated the opening of a unique human brain and neural tissue bank and big-data center that will help scientists uncover new cures for diseases like epilepsy, ALS and brain tumors. The University of Illinois NeuroRepository, the first and only such entity in the country, will house tissue samples from patients treated for neurological disorders at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System. Each specimen will be linked to clinical, radiological, electrical, histological and genetic information — "big data" that requires advanced computing hardware and software to store and query. "There is so much information generated in the process of diagnosing and treating a patient, but most of the time, that information isn't directly connected to any tissue samples that may have been removed from the patient," says Jeffrey Loeb, MD, PhD, the John S. Garvin Endowed Chair in Neurology and head of neurology and rehabilitation at the COM. The data are also underutilized for research, Loeb says. "What we want to do with the UI NeuroRepository is consciously develop protocols for capturing the right data and linking it back to its specimen in a way that makes that rich information available to investigators who can identify new drug targets and biomarkers," he says. "The tissue plus its data set provides a basis for discovery not available through any other regular tissue bank or data warehouse." Neurological tissue is often removed for biopsy and sometimes even as part of treatment. In some cases, with prior patient consent, tissues are taken after death for postmortem examination. "There is no better way to understand and develop treatments for human brain and neurological disorders than from those who are most affected — our own patients," Loeb says. "The tissue plus its data set provides a basis for discovery not available through any other regular tissue bank or data warehouse," says Jeffrey Loeb, head of neurology and rehabilitation. T P H O T O : U I C N E W S S E R V I C E S