{"id":24735,"date":"2025-02-27T16:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T21:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/?p=24735"},"modified":"2025-09-17T15:48:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T19:48:03","slug":"der-lab-research-highlighted-by-nci-as-one-of-28-key-studies-for-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/der-lab-research-highlighted-by-nci-as-one-of-28-key-studies-for-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Der lab research highlighted by NCI as one of 28 key studies for 2024!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This puts the Der Lab among three studies from UNC in the National Cancer Institute’s end-of-year summary of pivotal discoveries!<\/p>\n

\"Channing
Drs. Channing Der, Adrienne Cox, Jeffrey Klomp, Clint Stahlnecker and Jennifer Klomp, team leaders of pancreatic research recently highlighted as one of 28 key studies by NCI.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Congratulations\u00a0to<\/span> Dr. Channing Der <\/b><\/span>whose laboratory has received significant recognition for his recent publications, highlighted by the NCI<\/i> as one of 28 key studies for 2024. Several articles have recently highlighted their work.<\/span><\/p>\n

“There\u2019s much more to learn about how KRAS spurs cancer growth\u2014and how KRAS-mutant cancers resist treatment with existing KRAS inhibitors. To address this need, researchers behind two studies in Science<\/em>\u00a0have established the most comprehensive molecular portrait yet of the workings of KRAS and how its many downstream impacts may influence outcomes for people with pancreatic cancer.1,2<\/sup> The findings could lead to new treatment approaches, including ways to potentially guide treatment for individuals with pancreatic cancer, the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the U.S.”<\/p>\n

“These studies, supported in part by NIH, come from a team led by Channing Der<\/a> \u00a0and Adrienne Cox<\/a>, together with Jeffrey Klomp, Clint Stalnecker<\/a>, and Jennifer Klomp, at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The researchers were inspired in part by the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s recent approval of treatments that block a mutated version of KRAS that drives many pancreatic cancers. The team was also motivated by the realization that many patients whose cancers initially respond to the new treatments relapse rather quickly as the cancers find ways to reactivate underlying growth pathways.”<\/p>\n

“Importantly, the researchers found that the molecular signatures they\u2019ve uncovered may predict tumor responses in patients treated with KRAS inhibitors or ERK inhibitors. Based on their findings, they suspect that the reason so many pancreatic cancers don\u2019t respond to KRAS inhibitors may be because the drugs simply don\u2019t block KRAS well enough\u2014and not because the cancers no longer depend on KRAS signals for their growth. The researchers suggest it may be beneficial to monitor these underlying molecular pathways in patients to better understand treatment outcomes and guide treatment decisions.”<\/p>\n

~The above are excerpts from the NIH Director’s Blog, posted on June 27th, 2024 by Dr. Monica M. Bertagnolli, “Molecular Portrait of Key Driver of Pancreatic Cancer Offers Hope for Continued Treatment Advances.”<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

You can read more about NCI’s recognition of the Der lab<\/strong> in their article, “Progress in Advancing Fundamental Cancer Research: Research Advances in Cancer Biology.”<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

This groundbreaking work was also highlighted in a New England Journal of Medicine<\/i>\u00a0perspective<\/a>, and in a spotlight on phosphoproteomics recently featured in TiBS<\/i>. These prestigious recognitions underscore the far-reaching impact of their research and the exceptional quality of our proteomics core<\/a>, led by Dr. Laura Herring<\/strong> and her dedicated team.<\/span><\/p>\n

Further reading:<\/p>\n[1] Klomp JA,\u00a0et al<\/em>.\u00a0Defining the KRAS- and ERK-dependent transcriptome in KRAS-mutant cancers<\/a>.\u00a0Science<\/em>. DOI: 10.1126\/science.adk0775 (2024).<\/p>\n[2] Klomp JE,\u00a0et al<\/em>.\u00a0Determining the ERK-regulated phosphoproteome driving KRAS-mutant cancer<\/a>.\u00a0Science<\/em>. DOI: 10.1126\/science.adk0850 (2024).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notably, this puts the Der Lab among three studies from UNC in NCI’s end-of-year summary of pivotal discoveries!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22429,"featured_media":15773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18,17,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-news","category-journal","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/930\/2021\/03\/channing-der-250-2.jpg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/930\/2021\/03\/channing-der-250-2.jpg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/930\/2021\/03\/channing-der-250-2.jpg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/930\/2021\/03\/channing-der-250-2.jpg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/930\/2021\/03\/channing-der-250-2-150x150.jpg","featured_image_alt":"Channing Der, PhD","category_details":[{"name":"Faculty News","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/category\/news\/faculty-news\/"},{"name":"Journal","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/category\/journal\/"},{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/category\/news\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}