Cancer

In another recent advancement, the investigational Alzheimer’s drug CMS121, developed and studied at Salk over the last 15 years, has now moved into a phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate its safety in humans. Salk Research Professor Pamela Maher and Bill Raschke of Virogenics, Inc., received $4.5 million over two years from the National Institute of Aging to support the trial and expect the first doses to be administered to healthy volunteers in early 2022. In mice, CMS121 reverses signs of aging in the brain and prevents the memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Genetic mutations play a fundamental role in the development and growth of cancers. However, while many studies have identified the mutations involved in certain cancers, like breast cancer, no one had ever managed to combine the data in a way that could reveal which mutations are most common in the entire cancer patient population. Now, Assistant Professor Edward Stites and his team of computational scientists have combined gene mutation information with cancer prevalence data to reveal the genetic basis of cancer in patients across the United States. The findings could help guide genetic research to develop more effective treatments than presently available.