John P. O’Bryan, Ph.D.

Professor
Department: Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
Programs: End Organ Disease

 

 

Research Interests:

Dr. O’Bryan received his PhD in Genetics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Following postdoctoral work at UNC and at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto and faculty appointments at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Dr. O’Bryan joined the faculty at MUSC, with appointments at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, SC and the Hollings Cancer Center.

Dr. O’Bryan and his lab are pursuing a long-running interest in the pathways regulating cell growth, development, differentiation and proliferation in response to growth factor receptor signaling. They have a specific focus on RAS GTPase signaling pathways activated by receptor tyrosine kinase signaling. Mutations in the three RAS genes are highly associated with human tumors, and abnormal activation of RAS is a frequent driver of tumor growth in cancers like pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). A translational focus of the O’Bryan lab is to address the yet unmet need for safe pharmacological inhibitors of RAS. One of their novel approaches focuses on the use of Monobodies, molecularly engineered protein binders, to block the the function of RAS proteins. Knowledge gained from these studies will inform the development of small molecule RAS inhibitors.

In other work, the O’Bryan lab is focused on delineating the pathway associations of a relatively novel RAS interacting and regulatory protein, Intersectin. Their ongoing work seeks to define the function of Intersectin in pathological signaling related to neurodegenerative disease and cancer.

Publications:

PubMed Collection