Brandon Mouery, a GMB PhD candidate in Jean Cook’s lab, was awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship (F31) on June 3, 2022 from the National Cancer Institute.
His proposal, titled “The mechanism and consequences of MCM degradation induced by CDK4/6 inhibition,” will investigate the mechanism that leads to proteasomal degradation of the essential DNA replication complex, MCM, in response to CDK4/6 inhibitor treatment. CDK4/6 inhibitors are currently approved to treat patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive/Her2-negative metastatic breast cancer. Brandon’s proposal will address how MCM degradation may contribute to the anti-tumorigenic efficacy of these agents, and whether it may be able to be exploited to develop novel combination therapies.