Dr. Songhai Chen, an Associate Professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Internal Medicine, has received a highly competitive breakthrough award entitled: "WDR26 in Advanced Breast Cancer: A Novel Regulator of the PI3K/AKT Pathway" from the Department of Defense for 3 years beginning in September 2014. This project seeks to elucidate the function of WDR26 as a novel regulator of the G protein coupled receptor-stimulated PI3K/AKT pathway in tumorigenesis and metastasis of breast cancer. This award will allow Dr. Chen to continue to explore the potential of targeting G protein coupled receptor signaling pathway for the therapeutics of breast cancer.