Kevan Michael Shokat (born August 26, 1964) is an American chemical biologist. He is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

, a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, and an Investigator with the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

Biography

Shokat received his B.A, in chemistry from

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

in 1986, completing his thesis, "Synthesis of a precursor of PRCPCP, a non-hydrolyzable analog of phosphoribosylpyrophosphate (PRPP)," with Ron McClard, and his Ph.D. from

in 1991, under

Peter G. Schultz Peter G. Schultz (born June 23, 1956) is an American chemist. He is the CEO and Professor of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute, the founder and former director of GNF, and the founding director of the California Institute for Biomedi ...

Research

Shokat is one of the leading figures in the field of

chemical genetics Chemical genetics is the investigation of the function of proteins and signal transduction pathways in cells by the screening of chemical libraries of small molecules. Chemical genetics is analogous to classical genetic screen where random mutations ...

. He uses methods of

bioorganic chemistry Bioorganic chemistry is a scientific discipline that combines organic chemistry and biochemistry. It is that branch of life science that deals with the study of biological processes using chemical methods. Protein and enzyme function are examples of ...

to elucidate

signal transduction Signal transduction is the process by which a chemical or physical signal is transmitted through a cell as a series of molecular events, most commonly protein phosphorylation catalyzed by protein kinases, which ultimately results in a cellula ...

pathways at the single cell and whole organism levels, and is particularly interested in

protein kinases A protein kinase is a kinase which selectively modifies other proteins by covalently adding phosphates to them (phosphorylation) as opposed to kinases which modify lipids, carbohydrates, or other molecules. Phosphorylation usually results in a fun ...

, and developing methods to elucidate the particular targets of each kinase, such as the

Bump and hole The bump-and-hole method is a tool in chemical genetics for studying a specific Protein isoform, isoform in a protein family without perturbing the other members of the family. The unattainability of isoform-selective inhibition due to structural ...

method. In 2013 Shokat published the first covalent inhibitors of KRAS G12C using a tethering screen. Following this strategy many pharma companies have developed KRAS programs leading to phase I/II clinical trials in this space, a landmark for what was once thought to be an undruggable oncogene.

Honors and awards

* 2002

Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry The Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry was established in 1934. Consisting of a bronze medal and honorarium, its purpose is to stimulate fundamental research in biological chemistry by scientists not over thirty-eight years of age. The Award i ...

* 2009 Elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

* 2010 Elected to the National Academy of Medicine * 2011 Elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

* 2017 Pharmacology Krebs Lecture, University of Washington * 2023

NAS Award for Scientific Discovery The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

http://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/nas-award-for-scientific.html

References

External links

Shokat Lab at UCSFKevan Shokat HHMI
American medical researchers Reed College alumni Howard Hughes Medical Investigators 1964 births Living people University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, San Francisco faculty Members of the National Academy of Medicine Princeton University faculty {{US-academic-bio-stub