Dr. Jing Chen ^[1], an assistant professor at Emory University, received a $720,000 award from the American Cancer Society to study new drug targets for multiple myeloma ^[2].

"This award will help us to extend our work finding and validating critical signaling effectors that could be therapeutic targets in the future,” said Chen.

Last year, Chen and his laboratory discovered the role of a key signaling protein, known as RSK2 (Ribosomal S6 kinase 2), in multiple myeloma cells. They found that if this protein is inhibited or destroyed, certain types of myeloma cells lose their ability to send signals. Without these signals, myeloma cells are unable to affect other normal cells.

One such inhibitor tested is fmk, a specific inhibitor for RSK2. Using cells originating from multiple myeloma patients, Chen and his colleagues demonstrated that fmk effectively killed the myeloma cells that depended on RSK2.

“This study shows the potential utility of drugs that block [multiple myeloma signaling molecules]…these drugs are opening more doors to treating hematologic malignancies and cancers," explained Dr. Chen in a description of some of his research results last year.

Other cancers, human bladder and cervical, have been shown to rely on the same key signaling molecules. Scientists are hopeful that the work being done to target multiple myeloma cells can be applied to other cancers as well.