The VIMM, established in 2008 by Paul B. Fisher, M.Ph., Ph.D., the Founding Director, is comprised of outstanding scientists/clinicians from VCU School of Medicine focusing on important medical-related research in cancer, neurodegeneration and infectious diseases. The purpose of this NEWS & VIEWS is to highlight the exciting research being performed by the VIMM members.     

VIMM Member Updates

Dr. Steven Grant was awarded $600,000 by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Steven Grant, M.D.

Source: Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America

Project Title: “NEDD8 and HDAC Inhibition in MDS and AML”



Period of Support: 10/1/17-9/30/19

VIMM physician-scientist Dr. Steven Grant has begun a 3-year award of $200,000/year from Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to develop more effective therapeutics for patients suffering from acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The goal of this research program is to conduct a phase I trial of the Nedd8-activating enzyme (NAE) inhibitor pevonedistat and a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor belinostat in patients with relapsed/refractory AML or MDS, and to perform correlative pharmacodynamic studies designed to determine whether mechanisms related to disruption of the DNA damage response (DDR) observed pre-clinically can be recapitulated in patients receiving these agents in vivo . NEDD8 is a Ubiquitin-like protein which plays an important role in cell cycle control and embryogenesis.

Research from Dr. Paul B. Fisher was highlighted in the December 1, 2017 issue of Richmond Magazine, in the Change Maker section:

Here is a partial synopsis of the interview:

PAUL B. FISHER, Director, VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine:

Metastasizing solid tumors kill 90 percent of the time. Paul Fisher wants to change the math in favor of people dealing with the cancers.

Fisher and his team of researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Institute of Molecular Medicine and at the Massey Cancer Center are working to bring laboratory discoveries to the clinic to treat patients in their battles with an array of cancers.

They have centered their efforts on a gene they identified in the laboratory that causes cancers to become aggressive and metastasize, melanoma differentiation associated gene-9/syntenin. The next goal is the development of a small molecule drug that will block that phase from occurring and the team has so far seen “quite exciting results”.

They are also working on modifying a gene to block cancer cells from escaping a primary tumor, which would impede the cells’ ability to attach to and invade healthy tissue and regrow. They are currently studying its toxicology (it looks nontoxic, says Fisher) with the ultimate aim of seeing how it works (alone and in combination with other therapeutics) on patients with cancer.

The goal is a product that will be used before, during and after surgery to prevent cancerous cells from colonizing in other parts of the body (metastasis), which would be a phenomenal way to treat this horrific disease.

Dr. Paul B Fisher was selected to serve as a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI) and a new initiative the Journal of the National Cancer Institute Cancer Spectrum (JNCICS).

The Journal of the National Cancer Institute (print ISSN: 0027-8874, online ISSN: 1460-2105) publishes peer-reviewed original research from around the world and is internationally acclaimed as the source for the most up-to-date news and information from the rapidly changing fields of cancer research and treatment. For the past several years, the JNCI has been ranked as one of the most-cited original-research cancer journals by the Institute of Scientific Information in its annual Journal Citation Reports. JNCI has a 5-year Impact Factor of 13.525.

About the Investigators: Steven Grant, MD, is Professor of Hematology-Oncology, Internal Medicine, VCU School of Medicine, Associate director for Translational Research Program and Shirley Carter and Sture Gordon Olsson Chair in Cancer Research, and Full Member of the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM). Paul B. Fisher, MPh, PhD, is Professor and Chair of Human and Molecular Genetics (HMG), Director of the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM) and Thelma Newmeyer Corman Chair in Cancer Research in the VCU Massey Cancer Center (MCC), Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine, Richmond, VA.