The NCI Outstanding Investigator Award (OIA) supports investigators with outstanding records of productivity in cancer research by providing extended funding stability and encouraging investigators to continue or embark on projects of unusual potential in cancer research. The research funded will focus on exploiting novel protein kinases that regulate MYC protein stability to cause MYC loss, determining key ERK substrates that are critical for ERK-dependent KRAS-mutant PDAC growth, applying experimental approaches to define YAP1–independent mechanisms, and pursuing outlier mutations in PDAC to identify mutation-specific vulnerabilities as the basis for the development of mutation-selective therapies. These findings will help develop anti-KRAS therapies and achieve breakthroughs needed for development of anti-RAS oncogene therapies that can impair growth of PDAC.
Der Lab 