Dr. Bonnie Sloane, professor and chair of the WSU Department of Pharmacology, was named co-investigator on a National Institutes of Health grant to develop a national resource for medical researchers on the way proteins behave. The grant, which establishes the Center on Proteolytic Pathways at The Burnham Institute, will consolidate all known and emerging knowledge into the Protease Pathway Integration Platform. Proteolysis, or how proteins break down, regulates the four fundamental aspects of cell behavior: division, death, differentiation and motility. Understanding this process is critical to designing new therapies based on promoting or inhibiting cellular behaviors. The principal investigator on the grant is Dr. Jeff Smith, who works with Dr. Sloane on her Breast Cancer Center of Excellence grant.