Staff Scientists
Matthias Drosten, PhD
Dr. Matthias Drosten explores the mechanisms of RAS signaling in normal cells and in cancer cells. He has established the signal transduction pathways and functions of normal RAS proteins in development and homeostasis. Likewise, he is now characterizing the consequences and mechanisms of oncogenic RAS signaling in lung cancer. Moreover, he is also interested in unravelling the specific roles of the various RAS isoforms in development and cancer.
Raquel Garcia-Medina, PhD
Dr. Raquel Garcia-Medina currently investigates the role of the PI3k-AKT-mTOR pathway in KRAS-induced lung adenocarcinoma and pancreatic cancer to aid in developing new therapeutic strategies and decreasing target-inhibition-associated toxicities. She has generated two conditional kinase dead GEMMs to overcome acquired resistance and the toxicity associated to the direct inhibition of the PI3K pathway by using CRISPR and organoid systems.
Carmen Guerra, PhD
Dr. Guerra studies genetic and pharmacological therapeutic strategies against pancreatic cancer in genetically modified mouse models (GEMMs) that recapitulate human disease. The identification of possible therapeutic targets is carried out both in tumor cells and in the stroma of pancreatic cancer tumors. Specifically, stromal studies are focused on defining at a molecular and functional level the different populations of cancer associated fibroblasts. After the validation of the targets in preclinical trials in GEMMs, the targets are validated in tumor samples of patients, both in organoids and in tumors of patients implanted in immunosuppressed mice (PDX).
Monica Musteanu, PhD
Dr. Monica Musteanu is currently working on the discovery and the validation of novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of KRAS mutant lung adenocarcinomas. Her work is focused in the development of genetically engineered mouse models and patient derived xenograft models as platforms for target validation by genetic and pharmacological means. Dr. Musteanu also sustains several collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry to test new generation compounds.
