Joint Oncology/IRDB Imperial Seminar Series, Thursday 10.02.22 @ 13.30, hosted by Dr Olivier Pardo.
We are delighted to have Prof Ivan Gout, Professor of Cancer Biochemistry, Structural & Molecular Biology at UCL. Professor Gout graduated as an MD with Distinction at Lviv State Medical University (Ukraine) in 1983 with a great passion to become a surgeon in oncology. He obtained his doctorate at the Institute of Experimental Oncology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 1987. He obtained a fellowship from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Professor Gout arrived in London on the first wave of perestroika and began his post-doctoral research in Mike Waterfield’s laboratory at the same Institute studying signal transduction via the PI3 kinase pathway. In 1996, he started his own group at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, focusing on the regulation of growth via the S6 kinase pathway. Since 2003, he has been a Professor of Cancer Biochemistry at University College London, where he has been working on signal transduction, cellular metabolism and redox regulation in health and disease. His group were the first to report molecular cloning and characterization of several signalling and metabolic proteins, including ribosomal S6 kinase 2 (S6K2), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTORb) and CoA synthase. They also reported, for the first time, that mutations in CoA synthase are associated with an aggressive form of a Parkinson’s-like neurodegeneration (NBIA, neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation).
A new field of research on protein CoAlation and antioxidant function of coenzyme A (CoA) in eukaryotes and prokaryotes has been recently pioneered in Professor Gout’s laboratory. He leads and coordinate an international consortium on this emerging topic of research. A strong research portfolio (over 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals, H-Index 47) and patent (10 world-wide patents) has allowed him to establish and coordinate two drug discovery programs aimed at developing novel cancer therapies.