Channing Der awarded NCI grant to pursue drug discovery
Channing J. Der, PhD, UNC Lineberger member and Kenan Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the UNC School of Medicine, was awarded a five-year NIH R01 grant entitled “Biological Activity of RAS Oncogenes”. This grant will support his studies to pursue drug discovery for novel was to target “undruggable” KRAS by targeting instead the MYC oncogene. This project includes collaborators from the Lineberger, including Drs. Chad Pecot, Adrienne Cox and Lee Graves.
Kirsten Bryant wins Pancreatic Cancer Action Network-AACR Pathway to Leadership Grant
The five-year 2015 Pancreatic Cancer Action Network-AACR Pathway to Leadership Grant was awarded to Kirsten Bryant, PhD, a posdoctoral fellow at UNC Lineberger, for her project titled “Exploring pancreatic cancer cell metabolism for therapeutic gain.”
Der Lab postdocs Aaron Hobbs, Angelina Vaseva awarded fellowships
Drs. Aaron Hobbs and Angelina Vaseva, both postdoctoral fellows in the laboratory of Dr. Channing J. Der, have been awarded three-year fellowship awards. Dr. Hobbs has been awarded a three-year NRSA F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship Award and Dr. Vaseva has been awarded a three-year American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Dr. Aaron Hobbs’ research project, titled “K-Ras mutant-specific vulnerabilities for novel pancreatic cancer therapies”, involves the search for the long-elusive anti-KRAS drug for pancreatic cancer treatment.
Dr. Angelina Vaseva’s project, entitled “Targeting Myc in Mutant KRAS-Dependent Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma,” will pursue the MYC oncogene as a novel direction to develop a novel therapeutic strategy for pancreatic cancer.
Der Lab 