Damon Runyon Researchers

Dr. Hu is focusing on developing small molecule inhibitors to regulate the activity of Gαs, a subunit of the stimulatory G protein, which is encoded by the GNAS gene. Activating mutations of GNAS have been revealed to contribute to progression and metastasis of several kinds of cancers. About 64% of these mutations result in a single variant called R201C, which keeps Gαs in a constitutively active state. His goal is to design and synthesize small molecules to specifically inhibit the abnormally activated Gαs (R201C). Such inhibitors would be promising tools for treatment of cancer with R201C-mutated GNAS.