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Gerard I. Evan, Ph.D.
Institutional Affiliation:
Gerson and Barbara Bass Bakar Distinguished Professorship
in Cancer Biology Department of Pathology
Cancer Research Institute
Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology
The Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
University of California, San Francisco
http://cancer.ucsf.edu/evan/index.php
Education
University of Oxford, B.A., M.A.
University of Cambridge, Ph.D.
Research
The Molecular Basis of Oncogenesis and Tumor Suppression
Impact
Cancers are genetic diseases that arise through progressive accumulation of mutations in somatic (body) cells that deregulate the signaling pathways that drive cell proliferation, survival and migration (oncogenic signals) and inactivate the surveillance mechanisms that forestall cancer genesis. We are developing switchable genetic technologies in mice in vivo to ascertain which of these oncogenic signaling pathways is necessary for the maintenance of established tumors why, and what the therapeutic consequences are of blocking such pathways. In this way, we systematically evaluate the therapeutic utility of inhibiting specific targets within cancer cells.
Summary of Research
Cancers are genetic diseases in which cells in the body accumulate mutations that wreck the highly regulated pathways that govern how cells replicate, live, die, move and migrate. These mutations deregulate the signaling pathways that drive cell proliferation, survival and migration (oncogenic signals) and inactivate the surveillance mechanisms that normally act to forestall cancer genesis. Unfortunately, while it is now relatively easy to catalog all the multitudes of mutations in cancers, we have no way of knowing which of these mutations in cancer cells is actually required to keep an established cancer growing, except through direct experiment. We are developing new genetic technologies that allow us to reversibly switch on and off cancer genes of interest and in this way establish which mutant proteins offer the best targets for new, effective and specific cancer drugs of the future. |
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