Source: University of California - San Diego
Date: April 7, 2008
Summary:
A unique partnership between industry and academia has led to human clinical trials of a new drug for a rare class of blood diseases called myeloproliferative disorders (MPD), which are all driven by the same genetic mutation and can evolve into leukemia. In just one year, collaborative discoveries by stem cell researchers from the University of California, San Diego, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Mayo Clinic and a San Diego pharmaceutical company, TargeGen, moved from identification of the most promising drug candidate to clinical trials for a new drug to fight this degenerative blood disorder, which affects more than 100,000 Americans.
A study headed by Catriona H.M. Jamieson, M.D. Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego and Director for Stem Cell Research at Moores UCSD Cancer Center, found an inhibitor that can stop the over-proliferation of blood cells that results in problems with blood clotting, heart attacks and, in some cases, leukemia. Funded in part by a grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the study will be published in Cancer Cell on April 8, 2008.
