Targeting the MYC Pathway for the Treatment of Cancer

Abstract MYC is the most commonly activated oncogene in human cancer. However, to date, no existing therapies directly target MYC or the MYC pathway. My goal is now to target the MYC oncogene pathway to treat human cancer. Over the last 20 years, I have gained fundamental new insights into how the MYC oncogene initiates and maintains tumorigenesis. My work has established the idea that MYC is a hallmark of cancer and that many cancers are “MYC oncogene addicted”. I have identified both tumor intrinsic and host-immune dependent mechanisms. Now, I will use these insights from lab and novel methods to develop new therapies for cancer. I was one of the first investigators to use the Tetracycline regulatory system (Tet system) to generate “conditional” transgenic mouse models to demonstrate that MYC-induced cancer is “reversible” or “oncogene addicted” (Felsher and Bishop, Molecular Cell, 1999). Since then, I have used the Tet system to make a library of oncogene driven transgenic mouse models (MYC, RAS, BCR-ABL) of T-cell acute lymphoma (T-ALL), leukemia (AML), osteosarcoma (OS), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), lung adenocarcinoma (LAC) and renal cell adenocarcinoma (RCC). I have used my conditional transgenic mouse model systems to not only understand how MYC and other oncogenes initiate and maintain tumorigenesis but also develop innovative methods and novel technologies to make seminal contributions in cancer research, exhibiting sustained productivity. My proposed future research is built on recent observations that have used combined RNA, ChIP and metabolomic analysis to identify that lipogenesis and CRISPR synthetic lethal screen to identify nuclear transport as examples of otherwise not known to be MYC-regulated gene pathways that when targeted can block and reverse MYC- driven cancer. Now, I propose to use my library of conditional transgenic mouse models and human PDX models to generally identify targetable genes and pathways in the MYC oncogene pathway. I will use three complimentary approaches: RNAseq, ChIPseq and DESI-MSI to identify novel vulnerabilities in MYC-driven cancers; CRISPR in vitro and in vivo synthetic lethal screens combined with CyTOF and CODEX analysis to identify targets in my MYC-driven tumor models and understand their mechanistic role in tumorigenesis; MYC function reporter systems to be able to screen for genes and therapies to target MYC-driven cancers. My proposed research program has extensive support from an interdisciplinary team of colleagues. My proposed studies will glean novel mechanistic insights for how MYC drives tumorigenesis and use these insights to develop new therapeutic targets.