Anang A. Shelat Lab

As we build our understanding of potential liabilities in pediatric cancer, we continue to investigate ways to exploit them with existing drugs or novel therapeutics. The research in our laboratory builds upon our long-standing interest in PARP inhibitors, expanding to evaluation of other modulators of the DNA damage response (DDR), using both established and innovative methods to evaluate DDR. We have also developed robust research programs to study small molecule transcription modifiers (i.e., BET inhibitors) and compounds that disrupt the localization of tumor suppressors and oncogenes (I.e., XPO1 inhibitors). 

In collaboration with radiation oncologist Christopher Tinkle, MD, PhD, our laboratory is also working to develop rational combination cancer therapies to optimize the use of DDR inhibitors and radiation therapy. This work is highly collaborative in nature, involving the insights and expertise of clinicians, pharmacologists, cancer biologists, and engineers. 

Our laboratory has launched a project to use machine learning approaches to observe and evaluate genomic scars – lesions on the genome characterized by defined patterns of mutations and/or structural variations. Our research involves training neural networks to identify patterns within these scars so that we can predict DDR deficits, and ultimately, guide therapy with existing drugs or identify new drug targets to pursue.