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Yehenew Mekonnen Agazie |
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Investigator of the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center |
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Dept of Biochemistry & Mol. Pharmacology
PO Box 9142
Morgantown, WV 26506 |
Phone: 304-293-7756
Fax: 304-293-6846
Email: yagazie@hsc.wvu.edu |
| PubMed Publications Search |
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Program Affiliations
Cellular Signaling |
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| Research Interests: Cancer arises from defective regulation of the cellular signaling networks. Overexpression of the the ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) also called the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) family, is one of the major signaling defects in tumor growth and cancer development. More often than not, patients with tumors overexpressing ErbB1 and/or ErbB2 show poor survival rate. As a result, these RTKs have been the targets of intensive and extensive therapeutic intervention studies against cancer. These efforts have come up with promising results, but the drugs so far developed lengthen the life of the patient by only few years. One of the dilemmas in pursuing RTKs as drug targets is the redundancy of this signaling pathway. Therefore, investigations aimed at discovering better therapeutic targets are warranted. My lab is interested in this line of research, which focuses on the Src homology 2 phosphotyrosyl phosphatase 2 (SHP2, also known as SH-PTP2). SHP2 is chosen because it is an essential mediator of a variety of signaling networks including ErbB1 and ErbB2. Areas of particular focus include the role of SHP2 in the ErbB and FGFR3 signaling, and the molecular mechanism of SHP2 in regulating cell morphology, adhesion and migration. Initial efforts focus on isolation, identification and characterization of target substrates of SHP2 in the above signaling processes using the recently developed substrate-trapping system. The long term goal is to identify therapeutic targets for the treatment of cancer. |
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