UNC Pharmacology Presents Kevan M. Shokat, PhD for the Steelman Distinguished Lectureship

Every year the pharmacology department invites a leading scientist to present the Avery Steelman lecture. This prestigious lectureship was established in 1992 by Dr. Sanford Steelman, the former director of clinical pharmacology and endocrine research at Merck, to honor his father, Avery.

This year we are pleased to host Kevan Shokat, PhD, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at UCSF and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.The Shokat lab is best known for their pioneering work in the field of chemical genetics to study and target signaling proteins. The goal of the approach is to disable a single member of a family of proteins, or even a single disease-causing mutant form of a protein, while leaving other similar proteins untouched. This effort requires the integration of a variety of techniques including synthetic organic chemistry, protein engineering, structural biology, biochemistry and cell-based signaling assays. In the past his lab has used this approach to study protein kinases, large and small GTPases, as well as RNA helicases. Specific targets include proteins important in cancer, such as mTOR, Ras and CDK4.

Join us TUESDAY November 7 in 1131 Bioinformatics at 4 PM when Dr. Shokat presents “Overcoming the Undruggable Nature of The Most Common Human Oncogene K-Ras”.

Reception to follow at 5pm!