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The collaborative grant program — called U2D2 — between the University of Illinois Cancer Center and UICentre, the drug discovery enterprise at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), has awarded its fourth round of seed grants.

Center Center Cancer Biology Research Program members Sang-Oh Yoon, PhD, an Associate Professor, and Sejeong Shin, PhD, a Research Assistant Professor, were awarded $25,000 for their project entitled "Discovery of Small-Molecule LRP6 Inhibitors for Cancer Therapy." Both are in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the College of Medicine at UIC.

This project focuses on LRP6, a cell-surface protein that enables cancer cells to activate Wnt signaling. LRP6 is highly expressed and/or activated in aggressive cancers such as colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and melanoma, where it contributes to tumor growth, metastasis, stem cell-like properties, and resistance to therapy.

However, there are currently no selective small-molecule drugs that directly target LRP6. The team is developing screening tools to identify compounds that block LRP6-mediated pathway activation, thereby inhibiting cancer-promoting Wnt signaling. Ultimately, this work could lead to a new therapeutic strategy for Wnt/LRP6-dependent cancers.