Inaugural U2D2 Proposals have been funded!

In Fall 2022, the University of Illinois Cancer Center (UICC) and UICentre joined forces to launch a new cancer drug discovery RFA entitled “U2D2”. Today we are announcing our first $25K awards:

Identification of GBM Subtype Specific small molecule inhibitors for therapeutics development

Team: Zilai Wang, PhD (PI), Research Assistant Professor; Lijun Rong, PhD (Co-I), Professor, both at the Dept. Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, UIC; Yuwei Jiang, PhD (Co-I), Assistant Professor, Dept. Physiology and Biophysics, College of Medicine, UIC.

Focus: High-throughput phenotypic screening to discover therapeutic candidates for glioblastoma (GBM).

Bioassay development to discover lipid-Src interaction inhibitors, as potential therapeutics for triple-negative breast cancer

Team: Wonhwa Cho, PhD (PI), Liberal Arts & Sciences Endowed Chair, University Distinguished Professor and Head, Department of Chemistry, Liberal Arts & Sciences, UIC.

Focus: Optimization of biochemical and cellular assays to enable high-throughput screening to discover inhibitors of an oncogenic lipid-protein interaction.