Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Division of Trauma, Emergency General Surgery and Surgical Critical Care was recently awarded two new research grants.

The Robert J. Kleberg Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation has awarded a $3 million grant to Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) investigators in support of VICC’s drug discovery program. The gift awarded over the next three years from the private, San Antonio, Texas-based foundation will enable VICC researchers to pursue the development of new compounds to block the activity of cancer-causing genes and proteins that had previously been considered “undruggable.”

Combining inhibitors of the BMP signaling pathway with standard chemotherapy drugs may overcome drug resistance in ovarian cancer.

Inhibition of BMP growth factor signaling reduces breast tumor burden and metastasis.

A novel PET imaging probe detects tumor cell death in vivo and could be useful for personalizing cancer medicine.