Arul M. Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD

Dr. Chinnaiyan is the S.P. Hicks Endowed Professor of Pathology and Director of Cancer Bioinformatics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich. He was a recipient of a 2005 and a 2006 Prostate Cancer Foundation Competitive Award. This unique program supports innovative prostate cancer research projects directed by leading scientists around the world and enables them to forge ahead with their crucial work.

Dr. Chinnaiyan has won the 2008 American Association for Cancer Research Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research. 

Below is a summary of Dr. Chinnaiyan’s work funded by the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

Project Title: The Role of Gene Fusions in Prostate Cancer

Genes are small segments of chromosomes that contain specific instructions on how the cell is supposed to behave. Because instructions in the genes are so specific, investigators can look at abnormal cell processes and track back to how and why the mistake occurred.

In 2005, Dr. Chinnaiyan and his colleagues at the University of Michigan discovered a chromosomal translocation that is unique to prostate cancer. For reasons that remain unknown, segments of two chromosomes swap places with each other. This translocation causes two unrelated genes -- known as TMPRSS2 and ERG -- to now be adjacent to each other and to fuse together.

Because the TMPRSS2:ERG gene fusion can be easily detected and is unique to prostate cancer, it is a perfect target for cancer-killing therapies. If a therapy can be engineered to seek out cells that harbor this gene fusion, physicians will be able to directly kill prostate cancer cells without damaging healthy cells.

Dr. Chinnaiyan and his team are now developing a system to screen hundreds of molecules that might inhibit activity of ERG and prevent it from binding to TMPRSS2. It is hoped that blocking the formation of the TMPRSS2:ERG gene fusion will slow and/or stop the progression of prostate cancer.