Transient receptor potential vanilloid – 1 (TRPV1): A potential novel therapeutic target in blood cancers? ($36,706 – 2 yrs) – Assoc Prof Dominic Geraghty, Dr Murray Adams and Assoc Prof Al Khalafallah
An estimated 9500 blood cancers were diagnosed in Australia in 2009. Although the eventual outcomes are now better for people with some types of blood cancer, convential chemotherapy still has numerous short and long term side effects, is prolonged, and not always successful. Hence, novel, effective and less toxic treatments are clearly needed. A novel protein (TRPV1 or ‘TRiP-V1′) that causes cells to die is being investigated in a range of blood cancers. The immediate aim is to determine whether TRPV1 can be targeted to kill the rogue cells from patients suffering from diseases of such as leukaemia. The longterm objective is to provide a basis to develop novel, and more importantly, less toxic treatments for blood cancers.
Tasmania's Clifford Craig Medical Research Trust was established in 1991.