{"id":11859,"date":"2025-10-01T08:58:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T12:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=11859"},"modified":"2025-10-10T10:13:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T14:13:58","slug":"georgia-southern-researchers-identify-promising-molecules-to-target-cancer-metastasis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2025\/10\/01\/georgia-southern-researchers-identify-promising-molecules-to-target-cancer-metastasis\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Southern Researchers Identify Promising Molecules to Target Cancer Metastatis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Mark
Mark dela Cerna, Ph.D., observes one of the
world\u2019s largest spectrometers.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

The American Cancer Society reports that an estimated 63,000 Georgians were diagnosed with cancer for the first time last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those numbers inspired Georgia Southern University researchers to make a breakthrough oncology discovery. Mark dela Cerna, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry, and his students developed a method to inhibit cancer-causing proteins. This stops the spread of cancer cells from where they first formed to another part of the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to find medications that work on metastasis,\u201d said dela Cerna. \u201cWe\u2019re looking for molecules that could be developed as drugs to target cancer metastasis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metastasis can oftentimes be caused by a cell protein called phosphatase of regenerating liver three, or PRL-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to collaborations with Jessica Blackburn, Ph.D., at the University of Kentucky, Donghan Lee, Ph.D., at the Korea Basic Science Institute, Deji Agbowuro at South University \u2013 Savannah, and Brandon Quillian, Ph.D., assistant professor of organic chemistry at Georgia Southern, the first molecule they found that \u201cturns off\u201d the PRL-3 protein was discovered in 2022. Since then, dela Cerna traveled to South Korea to use one of the world\u2019s strongest NMR spectrometers \u2014 a powerful magnet that can be used to study interactions of proteins like PRL-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dela Cerna\u2019s research offers hope for therapies that could significantly reduce cancer-related deaths caused by metastasis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American Cancer Society reports that an estimated 63,000 Georgians were diagnosed with cancer for the first time last year. Those numbers inspired Georgia Southern University researchers to make a breakthrough oncology discovery. Mark dela Cerna, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry, and his students developed a method to inhibit cancer-causing proteins. This stops the spread […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":898,"featured_media":11854,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[90],"class_list":["post-11859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-spring-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/898"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}