Researchers Identify Drug That Could Treat Melanoma

Source: UC Merced, University of California, February 2016

UC Merced’s Fabian V. Filipp identifies a genetic activation common to one-fifth of melanoma patients and shows that a drug known to inhibit that gene could help suppress tumor generation.
By James Leonard, University Communications

Quick Facts:
• A research team led by UC Merced Professor Fabian V. Filipp has identified a drug that could be effective in battling melanoma.
• The drug suppresses the EZH2 gene, which can silence other genes that suppress tumor generation.
• Big genomic data and development of systems biology tools are providing new avenues for the rapid progress of cancer research and personalized medicine.

Less than a year after mapping the genetic landscape of melanoma, a researcher from the University of California, Merced, has identified a drug that could be effective in battling the deadly skin cancer.

UC Merced Professor Fabian V. Filipp led a team of researchers on the new project, the results of which were published today (Feb. 29) in the journal Neoplasia.

Filipp’s previous study used data from The Cancer Genome Atlas — which includes DNA sequences from 471 melanoma patients and more than 12,000 cancer genomes — to find patterns of genetic changes that give rise to melanoma tumors.