Lim lab (Oncogenic signalling)

The primary focus of our group is on oncogenic RAS signalling and its pleiotropic effects on cancer initiation and progression. The RAS proto-oncogenes are found in more than 25% of all human tumors and drive many aggressive and difficult-to-treat cancers. While oncogenic RAS proteins have progressed from being “undruggable” to now having clinically-approved drugs that target their activity, many of these compounds eventually lose their efficacy with the emergence of therapy resistance.

Our research seeks to uncover novel downstream biological effectors of oncogenic RAS signalling and to unravel their molecular mechanisms that contribute to malignancy. To this end, we combine high-throughput OMICS approaches, functional screens, and state-of-the-art cell biology and biochemistry techniques with KRAS-mutated or RAS signalling-active cellular models as well as clinically-relevant in vivo models. 

As we are interested in multiple facets of RAS biology, our research topics are highly interdisciplinary encompassing redox balance and metabolism, glycosylation, as well as long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) regulation.