UCL Cancer Institute Seminar Series

Despite RAS proteins being exceptionally well-validated cancer targets, little progress has been made in targeting them in the clinic. In this seminar Professor Downward will show his  work on direct  targeting of RAS proteins and also the combination targeting of downstream effector pathways of RAS, such as RAF protein kinases and type I phosphoinositide 3-kinases  (PI3Ks), also IGF1R receptor tyrosine kinase signaling. Another means of targeting this critical oncogene is the identification of unique dependencies of RAS mutant tumour cells through the use of functional genomic screens, a synthetic lethal approach. Julian will also discuss mechanisms whereby RAS signaling pathways can promote  local immune suppression in the  tumour and his attempts to develop new mouse models for KRAS mutant lung cancer that show more realistic interaction of the immune system with the tumour, which is not seen inexistent genetically engineered mouse models used to study RAS mutant cancer.

Julian Downward profile

Hosted by Professor Bart Vanhaesebroeck

Selected publications

Castellano E, Molina-Arcas M, Krygowska AA, East P, Warne P, Nicol A, Downward J. RAS signalling through PI3-Kinase controls cell migration via modulation of Reelin expression. Nat Commun. 2016, Apr 13;7:11245

Godin-Heymann N, Brabetz S, Murillo MM, Saponaro M, Santos CR, Lobley A, East P, Chakravarty P, Matthews N, Kelly G, Jordan S, Castellano E, Downward J. Tumour-suppression function of KLF12 through regulation of anoikis. Oncogene. 2015 Oct 12

Pender A, Garcia-Murillas I, Rana S, Cutts RJ, Kelly G, Fenwick K, Kozarewa I, Gonzalez de Castro D, Bhosle J, O'Brien M, Turner NC, Popat S, Downward J. Efficient Genotyping of KRAS Mutant Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Using a Multiplexed Droplet Digital PCR Approach. PLoS One. 2015 Sep 28

Location

UCL Cancer Institute
Courtyard Café
Paul O'Gorman Building 
72 Huntley Street
London, WC1E 6DD

This seminar has been sponsored in part by Taconic Bioscience, the UCLH NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and Cancer Research UK