Skouta Lab Receives $792K Grant for Research into Better Lung Cancer Therapies

Rachid Skouta, UMass Amherst research assistant professor of biology and adjunct assistant professor of chemistry, has received a scholar grant of $792,000 from the American Cancer Society (ACS). The grant will provide funding for Skouta’s lab for four years as he seeks “Identification of Ferroptosis Inducers Toward Better Anticancer Therapies.” 

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Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women in the U.S., with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) representing more than 85% of cases. The predicted 5-year survival rate of patients with NSCLC is only about 16% due to a lack of understanding of the interactions between the tumor and drug resistance. Drug resistance in cancers including NSCLC is the second-leading cause of death in the U.S., affecting 1.5 million people a year. 

Most current cancer treatments focus on a form of cell death known as apoptosis, which is triggered by activating caspase enzymes in a cell. Because patients are prone to developing resistance to caspase-dependent apoptosis-based chemotherapy, researchers are working to develop better NSCLC treatments. 

Skouta’s lab will focus on the ferroptosis cell death approach, which would be immune from the drug-resistance issues of apoptosis-based treatments and is also more precise, targeting only cancer cells. The researchers have identified a specific chemical that triggers ferroptosis cell death and will use the ACS grant to explore its efficacy as a targeted cancer treatment. 

The lab’s initial work on this project was supported by an Institute for Applied Life Sciences (IALS) Midigrant for early-stage translational projects through the Models to Medicine Center, with support from IALS venture development.