Innovative Melanoma Treatment Among NCInnovation’s $5.2 Million Research Funding Recipients
Source: Dermatology Times, July 2024
Michelle Bolas and Rukiyah T. Van Dross-Anderson, PhD, discuss the significance of NCInnovations’ funding and the clinical impact of Van Dross-Anderson’s research in patients with advanced melanoma.
NCInnovation recently announced the approval of $5.2 million in research funding for 8 research projects at 7 North Carolina public universities. NCInnovation is a non-profit organization with a mission to support innovative researchers across North Carolina. The 8 projects recently approved include lithium refining, drinking water purification, power grid efficiency, multi-year vaccine development, mosquito-borne infectious disease identification and risk assessment, beehive improvement and monitoring system, neuro drug delivery system, and melanoma research.
Rukiyah T. Van Dross-Anderson, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology at East Carolina University, is developing a first-of-its-kind cancer immunotherapy for patients with melanoma to kill the cancer cell and prompt the immune system to seek out and destroy other cancer cells. The molecule, 15-Deoxy, ?12,14-Prostamide J2 (15d-PMJ2), “elicits death in diverse cancer cell types by targeting different signaling pathways and cellular processes including ER stress, PPAR?, and ROS.”2