Page 32 - Layout 1

UTHSCSA
DEAN’S MESSAGE

continued from page 31 Dr. Peter Houghton, PhD, Professor of Molecular Medicine at the School of Medicine

for Texas over 25 years. ented faculty researchers, there are high-throughput genetic and
The institute benefited again in 2007 small molecule screening (HTS) approaches that promote the iden-
tification of novel targets, and the evaluation of thousands of po-
when the Greehey Family Foundation tential drug molecules. This makes for faster discovery and
led by Bill Greehey of NuStar Energy, identification of critical targets and interactions, which means not
donated $25 million to the Health Sci- just a shorter road to possible cures and treatments, but more de-
ence Center to focus on children’s dis- finitive path-finding along the way.
eases, including cancer treatment
research. The institute and the campus The very latest in research methods are necessary for the complex
were given the Greehey name to recog- and multi-layered approaches being pursued by the GCCRI, which
nize the significance of this transforma- focuses almost exclusively on the very specific molecular processes
tive donation. that drive tumorigenesis and confer resistance to therapy. The arsenal
of tools includes an array of biophysical facilities including Nuclear
Dr. Peter Houghton, PhD, Professor Magnetic Imaging (NMR), X-ray crystallography as well as mass-
of Molecular Medicine at the School of spectrometry, and thermal calorimetry, essential components of a
Medicine, was appointed director of the successful drug discovery and development program.
GCCRI in December, 2014, bringing
with him four decades of cancer research Most adult cancers are the result of simple genetic mutations on
experience. Dr. Houghton earned his top of pre-existing mutations that may take place over years, if not
doctorate from the Institute of Cancer decades of cell division. The eventual cancerous cell is many evolu-
Research at the University of London, tions beyond the original mutation that was its foundation. Pediatric
then spent over 30 years at St. Jude Chil- cancers achieve the same complexity in a much shorter time frame.
dren’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where he co-lead This means the processes are starkly different, with many cancers
the Solid Malignancies Program and for 17 years was chairman of being driven by oncogenic fusion proteins, that result from reciprocal
the Department of Molecular Pharmacology. Before moving to translocations of genetic material between chromosomes, which are
Texas, he was the Director of the Center for Childhood Cancer and
Blood Diseases at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s
Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. His research focus has been to identify
novel therapeutic targets, and to develop new therapies for treatment
of pediatric cancers.

Dr. Houghton has been consistently funded by the NIH for over
30 years, has directed an NIH program grants for over 25 years, and
served as chair for both the Experimental Therapeutics and Drug
Discovery Molecular Pharmacology NIH Study Sections, which
evaluate grant proposals in these areas. He has served on several com-
mittees within the NIH’s Children’s Oncology Group, and was
elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science in 2011.

New Tools in Cancer Research
The technology of cancer research has taken something of a quan-

tum leap the last decade. When discussing why he came to the
GCCRI, Dr. Houghton points out that nearly all the tools that com-
prise the new era of molecular research are available here in the
School of Medicine and the Health Science Center. Besides the tal-

32 San Antonio Medicine • October 2016