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♪ KU choral chant ♪
Charlie: My name is Charlie Fehl, I'm a fourth year graduate
student in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry working
on a Ph.D.
We use a unique biochemical experimental system at KU to
study prostate cancer, which is a common disease in America,
with the hope of arriving at more selective and effective
treatments.
The current standard of treatment is a drug called
abiraterone and this was approved in 2011 but it has
debilitating side effects such as high blood pressure and
other metabolic disorders that require additional medications
to be applied.
We use an advanced understanding
of the tumor biology to target
a signal that specifically leads to cancer survival and
growth and if we can knock this out then we can significantly
reduce side effects in the treatment of prostate cancer.
We have solved the first in-class biochemical crystal
structure of the enzyme CYP17A1, which is responsible for
the body's generation of androgen signaling molecules,
which fuel prostate cancer growth.
We're using our knowledge of the tumor biology to interrupt
this chemical signal.
It was definitely the strength of the program that brought me
to KU.
The researchers here and the faculty members here are using
very exciting brand new techniques for the study of medicinal
chemistry.
I love doing this research.
It's at the very front of the drug discovery process, but
it's basic science like this that is exciting, it is
practical hands-on work that will eventually lead to
life-changing developments.