Feb 1, 2021 8:30am Vanderbilt University researchers hope new insights into the interaction between MYC and HCF1 in Burkitt lymphoma will inspire drug development. (PDPics/Pixabay) The protein produced by the gene MYC performs many important functions during development, but, if it’s reactivated later in life, it can drive deadly cancers. Scientists at Vanderbilt University have developed a novel way to disrupt MYC by genetically modifying it so it can no longer interact with another protein and drive cancer. The method caused tumors to rapidly shrink in mouse models, the team reported in the journal eLife. Oncology researchers have been pursuing MYC for decades, but, because it has an unstructured “noodlelike” shape, it has long been considered “undruggable,” said co-author William Tansey, Ph.D., professor of cell and developmental biology and biochemistry at Vanderbilt, in a statement. So Tansey and his team decided to try to disrupt MYC by targeting another protein that it needs to drive cancer.