John received a BSc degree in chemistry from James Madison University (Harrisonburg, Virginia), followed by a MSc degree in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland). He then joined Dr. Phillip Dennis’s laboratory at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, where they discovered signaling pathways that promote resistance to chemotherapy, elucidated mechanisms implicated in the initial stages of lung tumorigenesis, and developed small molecule inhibitors targeting constitutively active Akt in lung cancer. John obtained his PhD from University of California, San Diego in Dr. Alexandra Newton’s laboratory, where he discovered a novel class of phosphatases (PHLPP1 and PHLPP2) that act directly on Akt and PKC to decrease signalling through these pathways. Lastly, John trained as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Tony Hunter’s laboratory at the Salk Institute. Utilizing bioinformatic tools they screened cancer genomes to identify novel kinases implicated in cancer by the presence of functional somatic mutations. He joined the CRUK Manchester Institute as a group leader in September of 2010 and the lab was focused on identifying mechanisms to promote lung tumorigenesis. John then moved to the Laboratory of Cell and Developmental Signaling at the NCI as a Earl Stadtman Investigator in the summer of 2016. His research will be focused on defining novel enzymes that act to suppress or promote tumorigenesis and in some cases can serve as novel targets for therapeutic intervention. The lab has several ongoing collaborations with pharmaceutical companies including Genentech and AstraZeneca to investigate novel inhibitors targeting newly identified kinases implicated in cancer. 

Cancer Biology, Cell Biology, Genetics and Genomics