Award Details:
Award Type: Catalyst
Award #: C-091
Proposal Title: BACH1: A Novel Diagnostic Biomarker for Breast Cancer
PI(s): Marsha Rosner (UChicago) and Seema Khan (NU
Award Amount: $250,000.00
Application Cycle: Round 26 (Fall 2018)
Award Start Date: June 1, 2019
Award End Date: May 31, 2021
Abstract:
One in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer that has no targeted therapy, will affect twenty percent of these women. Thus, there is a desperate need for biomarkers that will predict treatment response. The Rosner lab has identified a biomarker, the transcription factor BACH1, that promotes metastasis and rewires tumor metabolism to be resistant to drug treatment. They have also identified an FDA-approved drug that inhibits BACH1 and sensitizes tumors to metabolic therapies such as metformin. Analysis of breast cancer patient tumor data suggests that the effectiveness of metformin can be predicted by BACH1 levels. To translate these observations to patients, we propose to develop an assay for patient selection and a limited metformin treatment of patients to demonstrate that the sensitivity of a patient’s breast cancer to metformin is predicted by BACH1.