By targeting a specific protein, Ohio State researchers hope to provide more effective treatments for patients with hard-to-cure cancers. Researchers at the OSUCCC – James have developed a drug that acts as an inhibitor for PRMT5, a protein that is over-expressed in many aggressive cancers, including lung cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, acute myeloid leukemia and glioblastoma. The team is currently conducting a clinical trial that uses the drug to target PRMT5, which is only present in cancer cells. “It’s a real exciting target because it’s not expressed in normal human tissues, only in cancer cells. So the toxicity profile can be really well controlled,” says Robert Baiocchi, MD, PhD.