Warfel Lab Identifies New Role for PIM Kinases in Driving Tumor Angiogenesis

Release Date: 
Jul 06, 2021

Work from Dr. Noel Warfel’s lab,  led by recent CBIO graduate Andrea Casillas, recently published a paper in Oncogene describing a new signaling axis that promotes blood vessel growth in solid tumors. This discovery is the first to link the oncogenic PIM1 kinase to the pro-angiogenetic transcription factor, hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1). The authors identify a novel phosphorylation site on HIF-1 that is controlled by PIM1, and show that phosphorylation at this site is sufficient to stabilize HIF-1 in normoxic conditions to increase vascularization of tumors.  PMID: 34211090