Medical Science
The Glenn Family Foundation is helping fund a new position in the Health Faculty at The University of Auckland - a Chair in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.
Molecular cancer therapeutics is an exciting and fast-evolving field of medical science.
It involves applying new technologies to drug discovery. These technologies enable drug development to be speeded up which, in turn, makes the whole scientific process more effective.
Cancer is caused when a single cell in the body begins reproducing uncontrollably. The drugs currently available provide some initial control over many cancers. They are the result of decades of effort by industry and academic groups. About half of all cancer drugs have come out of work done by academic institutions and, locally, the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre (ACSRC) has played its part, having brought 11 new cancer drugs to clinical trial stage.
Unfortunately, most cancers eventually become drug-resistant. To combat resistance, science needs to better understand the mutations that are going on in the body’s cells and how these behave.
Every human being has a different genome or genetic pattern. Science now has a rapidly-increasing ability to “sequence” (or read) the entire genome of an individual. The first human genome was sequenced in 2000 and it was a very expensive process. The project took six years and cost three billion dollars. Today it costs about $30,000 and the “cancer genomes” of scores of cancer patients have been sequenced. In a few years the cost is expected to drop below $1,000 dollars - by which time thousands of people’s cancer genomes will have been sequenced or read.
This is important because it will help scientists to develop new drugs to combat the resistant cancer cells which cause the disease to recur in a particular individual, after their initial treatment.
The scientific aim is that most cancers, if not cured, will be able to be medically treated as chronic but manageable diseases. If a patient has a relapse, a doctor will be able to switch that person to the most suitable, new drug combination for treating the recurrence of his or her particular disease - based on a precise knowledge of that individual’s genome sequence.
The University of Auckland currently does not have specialist expertise in cancer genomics.The Glenn Family Foundation's contribution will enable the Medical and Health Sciences Faculty to continue playing a significant role in cancer drug development,by funding a senior appointment to strengthen its capability in this important new area. The Faculty will then be able to utilise and interpret the flood of genomic data that is coming on-stream, and so develop new drugs and diagnostic tools.
Advertisements for the new Professorial position are now being advertised. It is expected the position will be filled by mid-2012.
Learn more about the important work being done by the Faculty of Medical and Health Science at The University of Auckland : http://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/faculty/