Asfar Azmi, Ph.D., assistant professor of Oncology for the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, has secured a $366,125 grant from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute to study new ways to target pancreatic cancer.

He also received the American Association of Cancer Research's 2015 Millennium Scholar in Training Award for an Early Career Scientist for his research and gave an oral presentation on his work at AACR's 2015 annual meeting in Philadelphia in April.

His research project is titled "Targeting PAK4 for Overcoming Drug Resistance in Pancreatic Cancer."

Dr. Azmi has identified the PAK4 cellular protein as a novel, treatable avenue within the Kras pathway in cells. Kras is considered the master regulator of various cellular processes such as growth, differentiation and survival. When Kras is disturbed -- as observed in 90 percent of pancreatic tumors -- cells lose their checkpoint and are akin to a car without breaks, he said. Teaming up with the Gastrointestinal and Neuroendocrine Tumors Multidisciplinary Team at Karmanos and Karyopharm Therapeutics of Newton, Mass., Dr. Azmi has identified highly selective PAK4-targeted drugs.

These drugs inactivate PAK4 by directly inducing PAK4 destabilization. They represent a new approach in interfering with the Kras pathway. Dr. Azmi's grant is focused on studying these PAK4 targeted drugs in greater detail in different models of pancreatic cancer. The research is anticipated to bring forward a novel and tailored treatment of mutant Kras-driven pancreatic cancer.