Julia Shifman, PhD

Julia Shifman, PhD is the recipient of an ICRF Project Grant at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Mutations in the RAS protein are found in 30 percent of all human cancers, but despite its established role in cancer progression, efforts to design drugs that target this protein have been mostly unsuccessful. Very recently, however, a drug that targets one particular RAS mutation has been approved by the FDA. Dr. Shifman will search for new drugs that act against other RAS mutants, using protein engineering tools developed in her lab, to design proteins that bind to and inactivate only the unhealthy, mutated RAS, sparing the unmutated protein. These engineered proteins can become a starting point for drug development. Her ultimate goal is to develop novel drugs that are non-toxic and more powerful than existing therapies.

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