How a deeper understanding of RNA is crucial to fighting cancer & COVID-19
How is cancer research being affected by COVID-19? Susanna Greer, PhD\u2014Scientific Director, Clinical Cancer Research and Immunology, at the American Cancer Society\u2014describes conversations she\u2019s had with ACS grantees across the country about how the pandemic has affected their research and their labs. \n\nThen we were joined (11:16) by Anthony Leung, PhD, an American Cancer Society grantee and an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.\n\nDr. Leung\u2019s research focuses on how gene regulation impacts diseases such as cancer and virus infection. His work has never been so timely, and in this conversation he helps us understand why RNA is so important, what can happen when RNA regulation goes wrong, and how a deeper understanding of RNA could be critical to fighting cancer and COVID-19.\n\nFor information and resources about cancer and COVID-19, please visit cancer.org/coronavirus.\n\n11:16 \u2013 How the research community has been impacted\n\n15:07 \u2013 How the members of his research lab are supporting each other\n\n18:35 \u2013 What is RNA? A really helpful analogy to help us understand why it\u2019s so important.\n\n21:18 \u2013 How a deeper understanding of RNA is so important to developing treatments against cancer and COVID-19\n\n26:14 \u2013 How RNA regulation changes in stressed cells. One thing that cancer cells and cells infected by a virus such as COVID-19 have in common is that they are stressed.\n\n29:30 \u2013 A particularly important way that protein is modified, and what that matters in cancer and COVID-19\n\n31:58 \u2013PARP inhibitors are currently approved by the FDA to treat multiple cancers. How do these drugs work? In which cancer types are they used? \n\n35:30 \u2013 How the protein modification that his lab studies is important, not just in cancer, but also in coronavirus infection. \n\n40:31 \u2013 A message he\u2019d like to share with cancer survivors \n\nPhoto credit: Harry Giglio/Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health\nAlso pictured: Judy Ochs