# Telomeres and Telomerase in Cancer

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ · 2021 · $917,723

## Abstract

Project Summary
Telomere length maintenance is essential for the growth of cancer cells. My lab has
been studying the function of telomeres and telomerase and their connection to cancer
for over 25 years. While telomerase activity maintains telomeres in most cancer cells, a
subset of cells maintain long telomeres through a recombination based mechanism and
through other less well characterized pathways. The revolution in cancer genomics has
offered a new approach to identify pathways that maintain telomeres in cancer and also
genes that cooperate with telomerase to promote immortal growth. To identify new
approaches to block cancer growth, we are taking biochemical, genetic and bioinformatic
approaches to study telomeres. We will use the powerful new assay, ADDIT, that we
developed to probe mechanisms and cooperation of telomere regulatory pathways. We
will also mine data in The Cancer Genome Atlas to identify new mechanism of length
regulation. This work will establish a detailed mechanistic understanding of telomere
length regulation as well as develop biomarkers to move toward individualized
therapeutics for targeting the telomere in cancer.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10319458
- **Project number:** 7R35CA209974-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ
- **Principal Investigator:** Carol W Greider
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $917,723
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2017-01-01 → 2023-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10319458

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10319458, Telomeres and Telomerase in Cancer (7R35CA209974-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10319458. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*