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Developing Therapies for Ras-Driven TumorsHHS Only

Air date: Friday, October 20, 2017, 12:00:00 PM
Time displayed is Eastern Time, Washington DC Local
Description: NCI's Center for Cancer Research (CCR) Grand Rounds

Dr. Cichowski’s research goals are to elucidate mechanisms that drive human cancer, identify novel therapeutic targets, and generate robust animal models to facilitate these efforts. A related goal is to establish collaborative relationships with clinicians to translate basic scientific findings into clinical trials. Her principal scientific interest is to understand how the Ras pathway, which is deregulated in the majority of human cancers, promotes tumorigenesis. She and her colleagues have been investigating this question in nervous system tumors, prostate, lung, melanoma and breast cancers. More recently, her group has been working to understand how signaling pathways and epigenetic pathways converge and have been using this insight to develop novel therapies. Their most intensive translational efforts to date have been directed toward developing therapies for tumors associated with neurofibromatosis type I (NF1). As a member and Scientific Director of the NF Therapeutic Consortium, her group has developed two novel combination therapies that are now being evaluated in clinical trials in NF and a third in KRAS mutant lung cancer. Dr. Cichowski recently established and now directs the Center for Targeted Cancer Therapies at BWH/DFCI to extend their translational efforts to other cancers. As Associate Director of Planning and Evaluation and Executive Committee Member for the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, she plays a leadership role in developing and executing the strategic goals of the Cancer Center.
Author: Karen Cichowski, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine and Division of Genetics; Brigham and Women's Hospital
Runtime: 54 minutes