Pedro Torres-Ayuso, PhD

Squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) are frequent and highly aggressive epithelial malignancies; for example, lung and head and neck SCC (LSCC and HNSCC, respectively) affect approximately one million people worldwide annually. Despite our increased understanding of the genetic and genomic characteristics of SCC, targeted therapies are not widely available for most patients with these tumor types primarily because the oncogenic drivers remain to be identified. Therefore, SCC patient survival remains poor.

The Torres-Ayuso lab works to identify new targets and mechanisms of therapy resistance in SCC; concretely, the lab is studying protein kinases that are dysregulated in LSCC and HNSCC. Our research goals are (1) to understand the mechanisms by which these protein kinases contribute to LSCC and HNSCC progression and (2) to validate these kinases as therapeutic targets using pre-clinical models of LSCC and HNSCC. To accomplish these goals, my lab will utilize a multidisciplinary approach involving functional genomics, chemical biology, proteomics, and molecular and cellular assays to identify and study novel cancer-associated kinases in SCC. With translational studies using pre-clinical models, including patient-derived xenografts, we will validate these kinases as therapeutic targets in LSCC and HNSCC. Our research will generate new information regarding novel approaches to treat SCCs. In collaboration with clinicians from the Fox Chase Cancer Center and the Temple University Health System (Lung Center and the Head and Neck Institute), drug-development teams (Moulder Center for Drug Discovery Research), and other basic scientists, we will achieve our long-term goal of translating our knowledge of tumor biology into next-generation precision medicine approaches for effective cancer treatments.

Research Interests

• Cancer cell signaling
• Precision medicine
• Kinases
• Lung cancer
• Head and neck cancer
• Squamous cell carcinomas