Dr. Arthur G. Roberts, an assistant professor in the UGA College of Pharmacy’s Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences department, was awarded a five-year, $1.875 million R01 grant from the National Institute of Health titled, “Overcoming Cancer Resistance Mediated by the MDR1 Transporter.” This grant provides Dr. Roberts the funds to investigate the human multidrug resistance 1 (MDR1) transporter that causes anti-cancer drug resistance in ~50% of cancers.

The goal of the project is to determine why anti-cancer drugs lose effectiveness in cancer as a result of this transporter. Dr. Roberts predicts that these studies will produce rapid and innovative ways for overcoming cancer resistance, will accelerate anti-cancer drug development, and will improve the effectiveness of current cancer treatments. In addition, the innovative technology and approaches developed in these studies will open the door to future investigations of other anti-cancer drug targets and will lead us closer to a cure for the disease.