Antonio Giordano, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, and co-director of the Center for Biotechnology in Temple University's College of Science and Technology, has been awarded a five-year, $1.68 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue his exploration of the role the tumor suppressing gene Rb2/p130 plays in cancer.
An internationally recognized researcher in the genetics of cancer and gene therapy, Giordano discovered Rb2/p130 in the early 1990s while serving as a member of Temple's School of Medicine faculty and as a researcher at the Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology.
Over the past decade, Giordano and the other researchers at the Sbarro Institute (http://www.shro.org) have been able to establish a link between Rb2 and its expression with the regression of cancer in the lungs, the aggression of cancer in the liver and ovaries, the effectiveness of drug therapies against breast cancer, and as a potential prognosticator of prostate cancer.
"The grant from NIH is recognition of our hard and creative work on Rb2/p130 over the past 12 years," says Giordano. "With this funding, we will be able to attain a more in-depth understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind Rb2 and how it functions, as well as design therapies that will allow us to one day deliver Rb2/p130 quickly and safely into cancer patients."
In addition to Rb2/p130, Giordano also discovered two other genes in 1992, CDK9 (cyclin-dependent kinase) and CDK10 (PISSLRE), major guardians of the human genome. CDK9 has proved to be multi-functional, with the discovery of its important roles in cell differentiation, HIV transcription and tumorigenesis.
The author of more than 200 published articles, Giordano has done pioneering work in the fields of cell cycle, gene therapy and the genetics of cancer, paving the way to the development of new di
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Contact: Preston M. Moretz
pmoretz@temple.edu
215-204-7476
Temple University
27-Jul-2004
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