| Grant ID | RP110349 |
| Awarded On | October 29, 2010 |
| Title | Development of a novel chemogenetic approach to structure/function analysis of human telomerase RNA—a universal anticancer target |
| Program | Academic Research |
| Award Mechanism | High Impact/High Risk |
| Institution/Organization | Texas A&M University |
| Principal Investigator/Program Director | Feng Qiao |
| Cancer Sites | Basic Science, Multiple Sites |
| Contracted Amount | $200,000 |
| Lay Summary |
Telomerase, an almost universal marker for human cancer, is up-regulated in 80-95% of actively dividing cancer cells; however, it is either reduced or absent in normal tissues. This contrast makes the inhibition of telomerase an attractive target for cancer therapeutics. Telomerase is an RNA-protein enzyme required for the replication of the ends of chromosomes. Its protein subunit (TERT) contains a reverse transcriptase motif, which copies a template sequence within the intrinsic RNA subunit (TR), thereby adding telomeric DNA repeats to the ends of chromosomes. Understanding the structure-function relationship of telomerase is pivotal to designing highly efficacious anti-telomerase drugs.... |