Developmental Therapeutics/Pharmacodynamics Lab

Main Research Focus
Dr. Jimeno’s lab is focused on new drug and biomarker development. The disease focus is Head and Neck and Upper Gastrointestinal cancers. The general spirit is a collegial and integrative lab, with areas of seamless collaboration particularly in GI cancer with Dr. Eckhardt’s and Dr. Messersmith’s groups. The drug target focuses are Plk-1, EGFR and signal transduction inhibitors. The biomarker focus is constitutive and dynamic gene expression profiling, with a special interest on ex vivo assays and drug vulnerability tests. The platform focus is patient-derived direct xenografts. The analytical focus is multi-layered systems biology integration. Our ultimate goals are 1) developing better preclinical models to test novel and existing drugs, 2) determining predictors of response, and 3) devising ways to integrate that knowledge into clinical trials to individualize anti-cancer therapy.

Recent Publications
Jimeno A, Tan AC, Coffa J, NV Rajeshkumar, Kulesza P, Rubio-Viquira B, Wheelhouse J, Diosdado B, Messersmith WA, Maitra A, Iacobuzio-Donahue C, Meijer GA, Garcia ML, Tan AC, Varela-Garcia M, Hirsch F, Gerrit M, Hidalgo M. Coordinated activation of the EGFR pathway predicts sensitivity to EGFR inhibition in pancreatic cancer. Cancer Res 2008, April 15, 68(8).
Jimeno A, Kulesza P, Kincaid E, Bouraoud N, Chan A, Forastiere A, Brahmer J, Clark D, Hidalgo M. c-fos assessment as a novel tool to evaluate efficacy of antiEGFR therapy. Cancer Res 2006, 66(4):2385-2390.
Jimeno A, Rubio-Viqueira B, Amador ML, Oppenheimer D, Bouraoud N, Kulesza P, Sebastiani V, Maitra A, Hidalgo M. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) dynamics influences response to EGFR targeted therapies. Cancer Res 2005, 65(8):3003-3010.
Jimeno A, Rudek MA,, Kulesza P, Ma WW, Wheelhouse J, Howard A, Khan Y, Zhao M, Jacene H, Messersmith WA, Laheru D, Donehower R, Garrett-Mayer E, Baker SD, Hidalgo M. Pharmacodynamic-guided, modified continuous reassessment method-based, dose finding study of rapamycin in patients with solid tumors. J Clin Oncol, 2008, 26:4172-4180.

Lab Personnel
Antonio Jimeno M.D., Ph.D. – PI
David Stahl, MD - Senior PRA
Ryan Anderson, BA - PRA