# Signal Transduction and Therapeutics

> **NIH NIH P30** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2020 · $86,973

## Abstract

SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION & THERAPEUTICS RESEARCH PROGRAM (STT)
ABSTRACT
Director Richard Finn, MD and Co-Director Edward Garon, MD lead the highly translational UCLA Jonsson
Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) Signal Transduction and Therapeutics Research Program (STT). The
Program brings together basic scientists and clinicians to achieve the main objective of enhancing the
development of cancer therapies targeting growth signaling pathways, resulting from work focused on signal
transduction, the cell cycle, and cellular metabolism. To accomplish this objective, the Program built a robust
translational pipeline and clinical trials network that since the 1990s repeatedly delivers practice-changing, high-
impact research and applications. STT investigators provided the first cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor in cancer
medicine, palbociclib, that then enabled two additional CDK 4/6 inhibitors, ribociclib and abemaciclib, for globally
approved treatment of hormone-receptor positive breast cancer. Preclinical data from STT Translational
Oncology Research Laboratory (TORL) identified genes that associate with responses to CDK 4/6 inhibitors for
multiple tumor histologies, providing future targets for mining. Separately, STT investigator studies in melanoma
showed the added benefit of dual MEK and BRAF inhibition in the 50% of melanoma patients that harbor V600
BRAF mutations. This pioneering research led to the approval of combinations of dual MEK and BRAF inhibitors
for treating BRAF mutant melanoma, including dabrefinib/tremetinib and encorafenib/binimetinib therapeutic
pairings. With these practice-changing translational successes using commercially available compounds, there
is now an increased emphasis on targeting STT discovery and development towards in-house compounds for
clinical translation. New collaborations with UCLA affiliate Caltech and 1200 Pharma provide pathways for
moving in-house candidates towards clinical applications. Exceptional successes for enzalutamide, and more
recently apalutamide, in prostate cancer treatment provides a flexible roadmap for commercializing JCCC-
generated compounds for broad adoption and clinical impact that STT aims to continuously replicate.
The STT Program has 36 members drawn from four UCLA schools that represent 17 academic departments.
STT has support from $18,085,846 in direct cost funding, of which $2,649,209 (15%) is from the NCI and
$4,887,029 (27%) is peer-reviewed. Program discoveries from 2013 – 2018 resulted in 1,022 publications, of
which 15% were from intra-programmatic and 31% were from inter-programmatic collaborations. In addition,
66% of Program publications were collaborative with investigators at other institutions, and 41% of publications
were in high-impact (IF ≥10, or field leading) journals. The STT Program leverages its broad scientific foundation
and links laboratory scientists with clinical investigators to help translate early observations into clinical
opportunities and investigat...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9936722
- **Project number:** 2P30CA016042-44
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Richard S Finn
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $86,973
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9936722

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9936722, Signal Transduction and Therapeutics (2P30CA016042-44). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9936722. Licensed CC0.

---

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