Mohan Kaadige, Ph.D.

Dr. Kaadige is a research scientist focused on developing new targeted therapeutics for cancer and neurological disorders. At TGen, Dr. Kaadige works closely with Dr. Sharma and Dr. Soldi in the Clinical Genomics and Therapeutics Division. The team uses a combination of computational drug design, synthetic medicinal chemistry, and biology to discover small molecule inhibitors and/or activators for cancer therapy and neurological diseases. In addition, the team is also developing a cell therapy program using proprietary technologies and a comprehensive omic’s analysis. Dr. Kaadige directs the development of small molecule programs and assists with the cell therapy program.

The team is presently developing small molecule inhibitors and/or activators for targets involved in epigenetics, immune modulation, bone metastasis, and neurological diseases. Tumor genetic heterogeneity can lead to dysregulation of transcriptional programs and cause cancer cells to become highly dependent on certain regulators of gene expression. Super enhancer (SE) is one such regulator and tumor cells are known to acquire SEs at oncogenic driver genes (MYC, TERT, BCL2, GFI1, MED1, OCT4, and SOX2), activate their expression, and induce transcriptional reprogramming. Importantly, the majority of super-enhancers depend on the ability of cyclin-dependent kinase 7 (CDK7) to initiate transcription by phosphorylating the C-terminal domain of RNA Pol II. High level of CDK7 is associated with poor prognosis in breast, gastric, ovarian, pancreatic, SCLC, ATC, and AML cancers. The team has developed novel, potent, and reversible inhibitors of CDK7 that are currently undergoing preclinical testing in murine tumor models. Several other programs are at different stages of development.

Dr. Kaadige joined TGen as a Research Assistant Professor in September 2017. He received his PhD from the Wayne State University in 2003 where he studied phospholipid gene expression mechanisms under the guidance of Dr. John Lopes. He joined Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah for his post-doctoral training and worked as a Research Assistant Professor under the mentorship of Dr. Don Ayer. His research was primarily focused on cancer cell metabolism. He spent many years studying the mechanisms and signaling pathways involved in the development and progression of cancer.  Prior to teaming up with Dr. Sharma, he worked at NSP as a principal scientist where he was involved in pre-clinical discovery and clinical testing of novel formulations.