Evan R. Delgado, PhD

My overall goal is to challenge the unmet need of effective targeted therapies for Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) by innovating a patient derived xenograft model that streamlines preclinical drug development. HCC is the 5th most common cause of cancer-related death in the United States with an estimated 32,000 annual deaths. Insufficient therapies that minimally extend overall survival (e.g., Sorafenib and Levatinib) and a lack of resources (e.g., healthy donor organs for transplantation) have limited disease management. I aim to clarify the underlying mechanisms promoting HCC oncogenesis.

An explanation for the poor state of HCC therapeutics may be the ineffective translation of pre-clinical animal models to human disease. In fact, only about 1/3 of therapeutic approaches generated using animal models move to Phase I trials, and, of those that make it, only 8% pass. Improvements in this space are desperately needed to translate findings into practical therapeutic options.

My recent work has demonstrated the involvement of IQGAP1, a scaffold protein, and its role in hepatocellular biology. I found that IQGAP1 promotes YAP1 signaling in early stage HCC. Thus, the use of humanized animal models will provide a platform to target the IQGAP1-YAP1 network and provide additional opportunities to study other subjects such as how the immune microenvironment contributes to disease pathogenesis.