Kevan Shokat, PhD, a professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at UC San Francisco who discovered how to disable KRAS, a seemingly unstoppable cancer-driving protein, has won the Stephenson Global Prize for research in pancreatic cancer.
The prize, which comes with $1 million, was given at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in San Diego on Sept. 26.
Shokat used chemistry to control proteins that govern important cellular processes like growth. In 2013, he discovered a way to block KRAS, a growth-signaling protein that is mutated in many cancers. The protein has a smooth, slippery surface that makes it extremely hard to target with drugs, and the cancer field had all but given up on finding a way to stop it.
Shokat found a hidden vulnerability, and drug companies vigorously pursued the lead. The first KRAS inhibitor was approved for lung cancer in 2021, and more than 60 other drugs targeting the RAS gene family are now in development.
"It's a beautiful example of someone persevering on a seemingly intractable problem," said UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood, MBBS. "He used all the tools of modern chemistry and biology to eventually crack open a discovery that has - and will have - a profound impact on human health.
"Kevan has received funding for many years from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and his success shows how support for fundamental science leads to big breakthroughs."
