Description:

Seminar Title:

A Bacterial Toxin-Based Therapeutic to Target RAS-Driven Cancers

Speaker:

Vania Vidimar, PhD/ Postdoctoral Scholar, Satchell Lab

Host: Karla Satchell, PhD, Professor, Dept. of Microbiology-Immunology

Topic:

Bacteria and bacterial toxins can be turned into therapeutic modalities for a variety of diseases including cancer. Our lab has previously shown that the RAS-RAP1 specific endopeptidase (RRSP) from Vibrio Vulnificus proteolytically cleaves RAS and RAP1 within the Switch I, a region crucial to RAS-mediated signal transduction. Importantly, RAS genes are mutated in more than one-third of all human cancers and are drivers of three of the four deadliest cancers worldwide (pancreatic, colorectal and lung). Because of the high affinity for their GTP substrate and lack of drug-accessible binding pockets, RAS proteins have been deemed “undruggable” for decades and no FDA-approved RAS inhibitors are currently in clinical use. We have used protein engineering, microbiology and cancer biology approaches to direct RRSP to cancer cells to provide proof-of-concept that RRSP can stop tumor grow and/or induce tumor regression in vivo. I will discuss the biology underlying these approaches and current state of results.

Zoom Link:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/97040519651?pwd=VGlVKzcvQUZ3ZUQ3V3E3UDdyWDJSQT09

Meeting ID: 970 4051 9651
Password: 527137