Scientists knew the gene all too well. Decades of research had shown that mutated versions of it were behind a variety of cancers. But designing a medicine that could block the effects of this gene, called KRAS, proved exceptionally challenging, which earned it a reputation for being “undruggable.”
Then, in 2013, a breakthrough came from the laboratory of Kevan Shokat, a chemical biologist at the University of California, San Francisco. Shokat’s lab found a hidden groove on the proteins created by a certain, prevalent KRAS mutation, and developed compounds that used this groove to latch onto the proteins and keep them inactive. This work ultimately opened the door for Amgen’s Lumakras, which last year became the first approved KRAS-targeting therapy.
