Dr. Igor Vivanco

Biography

Igor Vivanco is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science at King's College London. He received his BA degree in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and went on to earn his PhD at the same institution. His research has primarily focused on the PTEN tumor suppressor function and pharmacologically targeting cancer-specific liabilities generated by the functional loss of PTEN. Following his doctorate, he conducted post-doctoral work at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where he concentrated on understanding de novo resistance to EGFR kinase inhibitors in glioblastoma. Dr. Vivanco has published seminal work on identifying and characterizing the mechanism of PTEN loss related to EGFR inhibitor resistance, leading to a refined understanding of conformation-selective EGFR inhibitors used to optimize targeting in glioblastoma. In 2014, he established his own research lab focused on the molecular underpinnings of oncogene metabolic addiction in cancer, particularly addiction to receptor tyrosine kinases and the PI3K pathway. His goal is to utilize this knowledge to optimize the clinical deployment of targeted agents in brain and lung cancer treatments. He demonstrated that AKT, a critical effector of PI3K, promotes cell survival independently of its catalytic activity, uncovering important therapeutic properties of AKT inhibitors.

Research Interests

Experience