Anne Noonan, MB BCh BAO, MSc, MRCPI
National Cancer Institute
2012 Gilman Family Scholar
Proteomic biomarker development for optimal sequencing of doxetaxel & SMACmimetic
The drug TL32711 can stimulate ovarian cancer cell death by decreasing proteins that inhibit cell death and decreasing signaling through the NFkB signalling pathway that is known to be overactive in ovarian cancer. This cascade of protein changes could work with a traditional chemotherapy agent called docetaxel to increase ovarian cancer cell death. Dr. Noonan will focus on an enzyme called caspase-8 which is an important link between NFkB and cell death pathways to see if she can tip the balance toward cell death in ovarian cancer tumors. The aim of Dr. Noonan’s project is to determine how best to combine TL32711 and docetaxel and to discover if protein biomarkers can aid the selection of patients for this drug combination in future clinical trials.