New Grant Funding

I'm pleased to announce that I have been awarded an internal Academic Health Center Seed Grant for a new project titled "Mechanism of Action of RITA, a Small Molecule for MLL Leukemias" for 2011–2012. Although the grant is small, $25,000, it will be a big help in getting this new project off the ground. This is a project that I have recently begun with Professor John Kersey, the Founding Director of the Masonic Cancer Center, as well as my medicinal chemistry colleague, Dan Harki. The structure of RITA (NSC 652287, below) is rather simple, but its anticancer activity is extremely intriguing and has provided us with many avenues to study.