Previously Funded Research

John Prensner, MD, PhD

University of Michigan

Research Project:

Microproteins as novel disease targets in squamous cell lung cancer

Summary:

Proteins are the building blocks of life; they give cells structure and carry out their essential functions. Yet, our understanding of the proteins seen in lung cancer remains incomplete. A deeper knowledge of these proteins is critical to understanding how this devastating cancer behaves and how we might develop better treatments. Our research has begun to uncover a previously hidden layer of biology called the dark proteome – thousands of small, overlooked proteins that have evaded detection by traditional research methods due to their size. These tiny proteins, which are called microproteins, may play powerful roles in how lung cancers grow, spread, and resist treatment.

In this project, we will bring together several pioneering technologies to probe the role of microproteins in squamous cell lung cancer, which is among the most aggressive types of lung cancer. We have found that squamous cell lung cancer exhibits enriched activity of the dark proteome, which we hypothesize is due to the underlying molecular factors driving these tumors. Our work will dissect how individual microproteins enable squamous cell lung cancers to survive and elucidate how this tumor differs from other type of lung cancers. Therefore, support from the Lung Cancer Research Foundation will enable the most comprehensive analysis of the dark proteome in lung cancer to date, promising to advance an entirely new class of therapeutic treatment targets for therapeutic development.