Congratulations to Lucas Farnung on receiving a 2023 Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award - this work will directly visualize how MLL-driven translocations occur at the atomic level.
"Understanding the mechanistic basis of gene expression regulation by MLL complexes in cancers"
About 70% of pediatric leukemias and 10% of adult leukemias are caused by a genetic disruption in which the mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) 1 gene breaks off and attaches to a different chromosome. This event, known as a chromosomal translocation, gives rise to a distinct subset of leukemias called MLL-rearranged acute myeloid and lymphoblastic leukemias (AML or ALL). Novel treatments for these cancers represent a major unmet medical need. However, the development of therapeutics is hampered by a lack of basic understanding of how the MLL translocations disrupt the function of affected cancer cells. Dr. Farnung will use biophysical and structural biology approaches to visualize how MLL translocations function at the atomic level and influence the important process of gene transcription. His work will elucidate the precise molecular mechanisms that drive acute leukemias and provide a platform for the development of novel therapeutic strategies against these cancers.
The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has announced eight recipients of the 2023 Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award, established to support “high-risk, high-reward” ideas with the potential to significantly impact the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of cancer. Five extraordinary early-career researchers will receive initial grants of $400,000 over two years, and each will have the opportunity to receive two additional years of funding (for a potential total of $800,000).
The Innovation Award is designed to provide funding to exceptionally creative thinkers with a revolutionary idea who lack sufficient preliminary data to obtain traditional funding. The awardees are selected through a highly competitive and rigorous process by a scientific committee comprised of leading cancer researchers with their own history of innovative work.