(Jan. 25, 2008) University of Minnesota Cancer Center members Robert Kratzke, M.D., and Faris Farassati, Ph.D., Pharm.D., are conducting key research on the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma with grants from the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (Meso Foundation).

Kratzke, associate professor with the University's Medical School and member of the Cancer Center's Genetic Mechanisms of Cancer Research Program, received the Christopher Stoeckler Memorial Grant in January 2008 from the Meso Foundation. He will use the $100,000 grant to test the capability of a new class of treatments to halt mesothelioma and increase its chemotherapeutic sensitivity.

 

With mesothelioma, the cellular processes that regulate the synthesis of proteins are disrupted and result in the unregulated production of cancer-related proteins. Restoration of this process to its normal state results in the inhibition of mesothelioma. Kratzke and colleagues are developing a new class of chemotherapy drugs that restore regulation of protein synthesis and reverse mesothelioma.

Farassati, assistant professor with the University's Medical School and member of the Cancer Center's Genetic Mechanisms of Cancer Research Program, received a $100,000 grant in 2007 from the Meso Foundation. He is using the funds to devise an innovative mechanism to directly attack mesothelin, the protein that is expressed in high levels by mesothelioma cells. He is developing a virus which can selectively target and obliterate mesothelin and thereby destroy the cancer cells. Normal cells will be immune to such effects since they lack mesothelin expression.

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The University of Minnesota Cancer Center is part of the University's Academic Health Center and designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute. For more information about the Cancer Center, visit www.cancer.umn.edu or call the information line at 612-624-2620.

Media contact:

University of Minnesota Cancer Center: Mary Lawson, Public Relations Director, 612-624-6165, 612-203-0819 (cell), mlawson@umn.edu