Drug Discovery Seminar - Jamie Alan, PharmD, PhD

 

Making Cancer Squirm: Using C. elegans as an In Vivo Test Tube For Target Discovery

C. elegans is a powerful model organism whose signaling pathways are highly conserved. For years, it has been used to uncover complex signaling pathways such as the Ras pathways. Our lab has focused on the Cdc42 pathway, which is important in cell polarization and cell migration and invasion. We have shown that PI3K is an important target downstream or in parallel to Cdc42 first in C. elegans and also in human melanoma cells. We have also discovered potential targets downstream or in parallel to Rac1, which is another small GTPase required for cancer migration and invasion. Currently, we are testing these putative targets in human melanoma cells. Lastly, we are developing an in vivo drug screen using C. elegans as a model to uncover new targets downstream or in parallel to Cdc42 and Rac1. Taken together, we show that C. elegans is a powerful in vivo model that can be used for drug discovery, particularly for targets related to small GTPases.

Date:  Friday, October 29

Time:  09:00 AM

Location:  IQ Lobby

Zoom:  https://msu.zoom.us/j/98508621581

Passcode:  083646

Host:  Joseph Nichols (nicho621@msu.edu)