Rohit Malik

About Rohit Malik

Therapies targeting the androgen receptor (AR) are the primary treatment approach for metastatic prostate cancer. Patients eventually progress to an aggressive drug-resistant disease state termed castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).

Dr. Rohit Malik will study a protein called MLL that interacts with AR and will attempt to credential MLL as a novel target to prevent or treat cancers resistant to AR-targeting drugs.

Small molecules that inhibit MLL activity will be identified and tested in pre-clinical AR-dependent and independent prostate tumor models.

If successful, a new therapeutic target will be credentialed, drug candidates will be discovered, and the potential efficacy of targeting MLL in drug-sensitive and CRPC patients will be determined.

What this means for patients: The identification of drugs that can inhibit the development of or be used to treat CRPC is critical to prevent the otherwise inevitable deaths of these patients. This project will characterize the biology and impact of therapeutically targeting a promising candidate gene, MLL, and may lead to new treatments that prolong the lives of patients.