So tell us a little bit about that enzyme, and then why was it natural for you and Andrew to get together?

The enzyme came onto our target screen because we discovered that it was one of the key effectors to a pathway called TGF-beta that we had shown was a major pathway inactivated in the development of colon cancer.

And as we understood the role of this enzyme 15-PGDH, what we originally saw was that it was shutting off stem cells in the colon.

That's why it was shutting off tumors.

We wondered whether perhaps it might be useful to shut it off for medicinal purposes, particularly after an injury like the destruction of the colon by colitis.

We hooked up with Jim Wilson, my former partner here at UH, who is down at UT Southwestern, to go on a drug discovery hunt and try to find a drug that could shut PGDH down in people who had had an injury like colitis.

And We were able to show that we could find a small molecule.

It's really an honor and a privilege to follow what you're doing and to bring you to our listeners.