Better drugs that target major oncoproteins in TNBC involved in metastasis

Speakers

• 

  Eswar Shankar Assistant Research Professor, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center
  

  Eswar Shankar

  Assistant Research Professor, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center

  Assistant Research Professor. The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, OH. Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH.

  The research focus of Dr. Shankar is on breast and prostate cancer studying the molecular mechanism attributing to initiation and metastasis identifying targets associated with cancer progression and drug resistance. Over the last 14 years Dr. Shankar’s research has evolved in elucidating the mechanisms of oncogenes that orchestrate tumor promotion. In the recent years Dr. Shankar has been involved research to repurpose drugs and come out with combinatorial treatments that synergistically inhibit the growth of metastatic breast cancer. In the current position Dr. Shankar in collaboration with Dr. Bhuvaneswari Ramaswamy, MD, Breast Oncologist, Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center and Dr. Vish Subramaniam, Ph.D. Academy Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, and OSU Emeritus Academy is developing combinational treatments to inhibit metastasis with minimal or no toxicity to normal cells. He is also involved in applying induced electric field (iEF) technology as a non-pharmacological means of treating metastatic cancer. As evident from his research publications Dr. Shankar has made significant contribution in understanding the molecular signatures altered during this devastating disease. He is funded by the department of defense (DoD)to evaluate the combinatorial effect of dopamine D1 agonist and EZH2 inhibitor GSK126 in arresting triple negative breast cancer progression.

  Most recently Dr. Shankar presented how the combinatorial treatment of Dopamine Receptor D1 agonist and EZH2 inhibitor could attenuate Triple Negative Breast cancer progression at a poster session at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in December of 2022. This work was selected by GRASP advocates and discussed in the advocacy session in December 2022.

  Dr. Shankar received is MS from Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu India and completed his Ph.D. from Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala, India in Neuroscience.

• 

  Blake R. Peterson Chair and Professor, Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, Ohio State University
  

  Blake R. Peterson

  Chair and Professor, Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, Ohio State University

  Chair and Professor, Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy
  Co-Leader, OSUCCC Translational Therapeutics Program
  Co-Director, OSUCCC Medicinal Chemistry Shared Resource
  John W. Wolfe Chair in Cancer Research
  The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy

  Blake Peterson was raised in Reno, Nevada. After receiving a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Nevada Reno in 1990, he pursued his PhD in Chemistry at UCLA. During this time, he moved with his PhD advisor to Switzerland, where he conducted research for two years at the ETH-Zurich. In 1994, he accepted a postdoctoral position in the Dept. of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University as a Damon Runyon / Walter Winchell Cancer Research Foundation Fellow. In 1998, he joined the faculty in the Dept. of Chemistry at Penn State University as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. At Penn State, he was named a research scholar of the American Cancer Society and was the recipient of a Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award. In 2008, he joined the faculty of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas (KU) as a Regents Distinguished Professor, where he was named an Eminent Scholar by the Kansas Biosciences Authority. At KU, he was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2019, he joined the faculty of The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy as Professor and Chair of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy. He additionally holds appointments at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC) as John W. Wolfe Chair in Cancer Research, Co-Leader of the OSUCCC Translational Therapeutics (TT) Program, and Co-Director of the OSUCCC Medicinal Chemistry Shared Resource (MCSR). As Co-Leader of the TT Program, he oversees basic science efforts and helps faculty initiate small molecule drug discovery projects at OSU. As Co-Director of the MCSR, he built and co-leads a new laboratory focused on high-content and high-throughput screening of small molecules against protein targets involved in cancer proliferation for the identification of discovery of drug candidates and chemical probes. His independent academic laboratory in the OSU College of Pharmacy uses organic/medicinal chemistry and chemical biology approaches to develop chemical tools for anticancer drug discovery.