Kavita Shah, PhD
Purdue University
Chemical Genetic Dissection of Aurora A Kinase in Ovarian Cancer
The function of kinases is to turn proteins on and off in cells. Aurora A kinase is one such kinase whose levels increase early in ovarian cancer and are associated with poor prognosis. By identifying the proteins that Aurora A kinase turns on and off in ovarian cancer cells that are not affected in normal cells, Dr. Shah can design drugs to inhibit Aurora A kinase from doing its job and reverse the cascade of proteins that are involved in progression of ovarian cancer. Safer drugs can be developed which target only ovarian cancer cells while avoiding normal cells.