Professor Spencer and Dr Rajasekaran

Dr Mohan Rajasekaran, Research Fellow in Protein and Structural Biology at the School of Life Sciences, and Sussex Drug Discovery Centre (SDDC) Director, Professor John Spencer, have been awarded a Blood Cancer UK grant for 33 months to study a “missing piece of the jigsaw” in drug resistance.  

This grant, amounted to £280,000, will allow scientists at the SDDC to continue research on a molecule which they suspect to be involved in the development of blood cancer. Their ultimate goal is to develop novel and more effective treatments that are kinder and have fewer side effects on cancer patients. 

Following their successful bid, Professor Spencer added: 

"Many cancer treatments fail or lose effectiveness after several rounds due to the body’s cells reorganization and ability to counter external “threats” such as cancer drugs. We have identified a protein that has eluded many scientists over the years, and we wish to determine its precise structure by Xray and possibly cryo-EM methods. This will enable us to develop novel drugs and better understand why it is activated in cancer resistance, so we can shut it down and let the drugs work again".