Cancer Drug Discovery & Development Accelerator

A platform for integrated drug discovery and translation

When Lawrence Einhorn, MD, developed the cure for testicular cancer in the early 1970s, he gave hope to thousands of patients around the world and inspired countless cancer researchers to develop other therapies that might one day cure other cancers.

In 2019, IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center launched the Cancer Drug Discovery and Development Accelerator (CD³A) initiative, with the goal of integrating emerging technologies/equipment and computational tools for new drug discovery and development.

The CD³A is an initiative of the cancer center with the goal of accelerating drug discovery and development by bringing together university researchers, experienced pharmaceutical industry veterans, technology cores, and external research organizations.

Led by program co-leaders Chafiq Hamdouchi, PhD, and Mark Kelley, PhD, our primary focus is expanding accessible molecular space and drug development capabilities across and within our research cores.

Team Science: Kelvin Lee, MD

Targeting PIM2 and its Regulation of the c‐Myc Oncogene in Multiple Myeloma and Other Cancers

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignancy of plasma cells that is the second most common hematologic malignancy (20% of all cases) and remains incurable for almost all patients. The primary cause of treatment failure is upregulation of pro‐survival resistance mechanisms. Identifying these mechanisms remains key for any new therapeutic development.

Dr. Lee, et al. have shown that the serine‐threonine kinase PIM2 has a major prosurvival role in MM, and that their first‐in‐class PIM2‐selective, non‐ATP‐competitive allosteric inhibitors demonstrated significant MM cell death in vitro and were efficacious in preclinical in vivo xenograft  models of MM. Their findings suggest a completely novel mechanism where their drug candidates disrupt a PIM2 interaction with a partner protein, resulting in downregulation of c‐Myc expression and loss of c‐Myc driven PIM2 gene expression. 

The team is currently in the Lead Optimization phase, conducting advanced characterization of their drug candidates with the aim of identifying and developing potent, selective, and orally bioavailable PIM2 modulators whose preclinical efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetic profiles will enable  clinical exploration of efficacy and safety in patients with multiple myeloma and other cancers.