Jian Yu, PhD

Lung cancer remains one of the greatest public health threats, despite advancement in the understanding of molecular genetics. We have been accumulating preliminary data and developing reagents for this project for the past two years, and we are encouraged by the early results of using PUMA, a protein, as a novel target to selectively encourage apoptosis, cell death, in lung cancer cells. With this funding, we will be able to expand the research into animal model trials, and it is our hope that these efforts will allow us to examine the feasibility of moving PUMA gene therapy towards clinical trials.