Wantong Yao
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Some cancers survive whatever treatment is used against them. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most common form of pancreatic cancer, resists most therapies, including immunotherapy.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Pharmacology
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
pancreatic cancer
pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
KRAS G12C inhibitors
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jul 2031
What they work on
- Define the molecular pathways through which a newly identified stress-response regulator helps pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells survive nutrient shortage, low oxygen and oxidative stress, and evade the immune system.
- Determine how these stress pathways promote tumor survival and immune suppression, and test whether targeting them works as therapy, using syngeneic allografts and a new genetically engineered PDAC mouse model.
- Identify the molecular events that let KRAS-mutant pancreatic and colon tumors bypass their dependence on KRAS during treatment with KRAS G12C inhibitors, drugs that block one mutant form of KRAS.
- Test whether drugs against these resistance mechanisms, combined with KRAS G12C inhibitors, produce lasting tumor control in patient-derived colon cancer models and engineered mouse models of pancreatic cancer.
More about the research
Tumors with mutations in KRAS, a gene that drives cell growth and is one of the most frequently mutated genes in human cancer, often stop responding to newly approved drugs that block it. The lab studies how tumor cells adapt to escape these treatments, with the goal of finding new targets for combination therapies.
Why it matters
Patients with pancreatic cancer have few effective options, and patients with KRAS-mutant cancers often relapse after responding to KRAS inhibitors. Finding the stress-response and resistance pathways these tumors depend on could point to new drug targets. Combined with immunotherapy or KRAS inhibitors, such drugs could produce longer-lasting responses in pancreatic, colon and other hard-to-treat cancers.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Pankaj Singh
University of Oklahoma-Health Sciences Center, OK·Biochemistry
Test whether blocking PADI1, an enzyme that chemically modifies arginine in proteins, or its downstream metabolic pathways prevents FOLFIRINOX resistance in pancreatic cancer cells, organoids and patient-derived xenografts.
John McAuliffe
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine whether pancreatic cancer cells circulating in the blood or spread to organs like the liver express NR2F1, a gene-switching receptor linked to dormancy, in mice and in human patients.
Brittany Allen-Petersen
Purdue University, IN·Biochemistry
Identify how PP2A-B56α, a subunit of a phosphate-removing enzyme, controls the fusion of macropinosomes with lysosomes, focusing on chemical changes made to proteins after they are built.
The school
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: 23 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research.
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