Lab Overview

Protein kinases are a family of ~535 enzymes that, collectively, are termed the kinome. Uncontrolled protein kinase activity has been linked to the development of nearly 25% of all cancers; consequently, protein kinases represent one of the most promising avenues for cancer therapy.  Despite the high druggability of the kinome, the majority of the kinome remains untargeted, with many kinases having no established oncogenic function. The vast majority of kinase publications focus on a small group of well-understood kinases, yet synthetic lethal screens repeatedly identify various untargeted kinases as playing functional roles in cancer cell proliferation and survival. Our inability to routinely probe these enzymes has hindered previous at­tempts to understand how they are regulated and function in cancer.  Our lab is interested in applying proteomics approaches including kinome profiling and phosphoproteomics to interrogate what is referred to as “the dark cancer kinome” to identify new therapeutic kinase targets for the treatment of cancer.

https://www.foxchase.org/james-duncan