Experimental Therapeutics

Welcome to MD Anderson’s Experimental Therapeutics department.

The Experimental Therapeutics department is leading the effort to coordinate all stages of the therapeutic discovery and development process. Our initiative is to design new, more effective and specific drugs with less toxicity, targeted for individualized therapy and accelerate the delivery of these new drug therapies from the research bench to the patient’s bedside.

Goal

Our goal is to transform Experimental Therapeutics into a world-class discovery engine, translational catalyzer, and integration facilitator. Under the strategic leadership of Department Chair Rugang Zhang, Ph.D., and Department Administrator Bao Huong Hoang, we envision the department:

• To be recognized nationally and internationally as one of the most innovative and transformative discovery platforms in the space of mechanism-driven development of novel therapeutic strategies.
• To be known for distinctive programs in cancer experimental therapeutics with unique scientific focus on unmet clinical needs.
• To be integral to the translational cancer research continuum at MD Anderson through close collaborations and strategic alignments both vertically and horizontally.

Approach

To achieve this goal, we aim to grow the following five strategic areas of emphasis:

1. Chemical and structural biology, protein engineering, and new therapeutic delivery platforms
2. Cancer immunology and immunotherapy with a focus on immune suppressive cells
3. Omics-driven discovery with a focus on cutting edge proteomics and metabolomics
4. Computational biology-based therapeutic targets and biomarkers discovery
5. Trackable genetic/epigenetic alteration-based targeted therapy, mechanism of resistance-based rational combination therapy and, in particular, using rare cancers as paradigms

Our objective for faculty recruitment is to thematically build “critical mass” in selected areas of existing strength or in emerging frontiers of cancer research. This approach will create opportunities for multidisciplinary collaborations, initiatives, and enables high-impact discoveries. Leveraging the depth and breadth of scientific portfolios at MD Anderson, we strive to create an encompassing culture that embraces collaboration and synergy across MD Anderson.

Our close collaborations with specialized services at MD Anderson Cancer Center involving mechanism-based therapeutic development will provide investigators the opportunity to maximize the therapeutic benefit of treatment and limit the undesirable side effects of therapeutic agents. Cancer-specific biomarkers will be used to select those patients who are likely to respond to a drug treatment and subsequently to follow the response of the drug, allowing our researchers to identify subtypes of responders and mix-and-match drugs to individualize a patient’s treatment.

The team effort between basic researchers, clinicians and translational researchers is a “three-legged stool” of successful personalized cancer treatment — each leg is necessary to achieve the desired balance. Our laboratory scientists will have ready access to patient samples and clinical observations that are needed for the creation of new cancer therapies and our chemists will be able to design the chemical structure of a drug to make it more effective or reduce its side effects.

The molecular, genetic and cellular targets that we identify will be the next frontier in cancer treatment, but also in cancer prevention, allowing physicians to correct or destroy cells with defects before they become a health threat. Learn more about our research.