Developmental Therapeutics
The University of Arizona Cancer Center’s Developmental Therapeutics Program is led by Aaron Scott, MD and Steffan Nawrocki, PhD.
The overarching goal of the Developmental Therapeutics Program (DT) is to bring together basic and clinical scientists to transform scientific discoveries into clinical applications to diagnose or treat cancer.
Member activities include development of new anti-cancer drugs for clinical translation, investigator-initiated clinical trials to elucidate mechanism of cancer therapies, clinical trials testing the efficacy of new or repurposed cancer treatments, evaluation of human biospecimens for novel targets originally discovered in cell and animal models, the discovery and application of tissue-based or imaging biomarkers, and enhanced tumor detection and imaging approaches.
DP activities are organized under three major aims:
- Discover and optimize new agents, biomarkers and imaging modalities for therapeutic translation.
- Develop mechanistic investigator-initiated trials for translation or reverse translation.
- Conduct clinical trials testing the efficacy of new or repurposed therapies.
Program Goals
The scientific goal of DT is to transform scientific discoveries into clinical applications in pursuit of the broader UArizona Cancer Center mission to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer in the catchment area and beyond. The three major aims of the program are further strengthened through cross-cutting themes and complementary research being performed in the Cancer Cell Stress and Adaptation Program and Cancer Prevention and Control Program. These themes include:
- Modulating oxidative and nitrosative stress
- Autophagy, protein turnover and nutrient acquisition
- Targeting oncogenic signaling networks
- Overcoming cancer-related pain