Sam '23 places 1st in regional science fair

Through his research, Sam Lustig '23  concluded that protein knockdown technology is the preferred method of treatment for some prostate cancer patients.
Sam Lustig '23 won the Cellular/Molecular Biology category of the Middle Tennessee Science and Engineering Fair at Belmont University on Friday, March 25.

He writes, “In my project, we introduced a compound called A1874 to prostate cancer cells. The compound is a proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) which degrades the intracellular protein, BRD4. BRD4 is amplified in numerous prostate cancer phenotypes – the protein plays a role in chemotherapeutic resistance and facilitation of tumor proliferation. There is a current standard-of-care BRD4 inhibitor, but the problem with this inhibitor is that it has lower specificity for the protein and inflicts cell death at higher concentrations in a reversible process, whereas, A1874 targets BRD4 in an irreversible process. We showed that A1874 inhibits prostate cancer cell proliferation at low concentrations in BRD4 over-expressive prostate cancer cell lines. Thus, targeting BRD4 via protein knockdown technology provides promise over classic inhibition as a possible targeted therapy for prostate cancer patients with heightened BRD4 expression."
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