As a physician and scientist, my goal is to bring the lessons of treating patients with multiple myeloma into our laboratory, so as to identify new targets and potent drugs to treat this aggressive, incurable disease. We have seen many patients with myeloma respond in some manner to the drug bortezomib. This drug blocks the destruction of toxic proteins in myeloma cells. When blocked, though, cells use another avenue to eliminate toxic proteins called the "aggresome". The gatekeeper of the aggresome is HDAC6. Potentially, blocking this gatekeeper could cause the build-up of toxic proteins and the death of myeloma cells. Our lab discovered the only drug against HDAC6, called tubacin, and we have recently proven that this drug kills myeloma cells in Petri dishes. Remarkably, myeloma cells are killed even more effectively when both drugs are given together. We believe HDAC6 is a promising new myeloma target, and we are now interested in finding a more potent version of tubacin. Just prior to submitting this grant, we identified more than ten such drugs. We are applying for funding to test these new drugs further in order to bring the best candidate from our laboratory back into the clinic.