3D computer model helps screen millions of chemo drugs

Researchers have long used still images of proteins known to be related to recurring cancers in an attempt to understand exactly why these proteins make some chemotherapies fail.

Now, biochemists at Southern Methodist University are using a 3D computer model of the human protein P-glycoprotein — believed to play a pivotal role in the failure of chemotherapy in many recurring cancers — to screen more than 8 million potential drug compounds in the hunt for one that will help stop this failure.