Hayley M. McDaid, Ph.D.

My research is focused in the following areas:

1. The origins of oncogene dependence in RAS- and RAF- driven malignancies, (primarily lung cancer), and pharmacogenomic profiling utilizing RAS- and RAF-directed therapeutics, specifically MEK inhibitors.

2. Targeting oncogenic / mitogenic signaling in the RAS / PI3K signaling network using combinations of signaling inhibitors.

3. Exploiting feedback in cancer cell signaling for rational drug design.

4. Epigenetic mechanisms of drug-resistance (altered methylation and microRNA's): the long-term goal here is to identify such changes in Taxol-resistant cancer model systems and experimentally manipulate target genes to determine their overall contribution to the resistant phenotype.

5. Drug-induced accelerated senescence as a determinant of tumorigenic potential and response to therapy.