A Harrington award backs the lab's mRNA methyltransferase drugs

The Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke reported that the Harrington Discovery Institute recognized Dr. Li Lan through its Scholar-Innovator program. The program sits inside the Therapeutics Development Center of the institute.

The award supports new compounds that act against an mRNA methyltransferase. The lab studies that enzyme because it writes a chemical mark on the RNA of an R-loop, and the mark helps decide how the cell repairs the DNA under it.

A compound that blocks the enzyme could take away a repair route that a tumor depends on. The lab tests whether such a compound returns a tumor to the reach of a PARP inhibitor or of platinum.

Read the announcement of the Duke Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology.