Pascale G Charest, PhD

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Associate Professor, Chemistry & Biochemistry
Biography
BS Biochemistry 1995-1998, Universite de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec CA
MS Biochemistry 1998-2000, Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec CA
PhD Biochemistry 200-2005, Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec CA
Post-doc 2005-2010, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA USA
Assistant Project Scientist 2010-2012, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA USA
Assistant Professor 2012-2019, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ
Associate Professor 2019, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ
Cancer Focus
We study how cells migrate in response to external cues, a process that is important to normal physiology and that is also implicated in the onset and progression of cancer. Metastasis, the migration of cancer cells away from the primary tumor to other parts of the body, is by far the major cause of death from cancer. One main reason for the lack of efficient anti-metastasis therapy is lack of understanding of what promotes tumor cell migration. Our goal is to identify key signaling pathways and mechanisms that control cell migration to guide the development of therapeutic strategies preventing the spread of cancer.
Selected Publications
Smith, S. F., S. E. Collins, and P. G. Charest, "Ras, PI3K and mTORC2 - three's a crowd?", J Cell Sci, vol. 133, issue 19, 2020 Oct 08. PMCID: PMC7561475 PMID: 33033115
Islam, A. F. M. Tariqu, M. Scavello, P. Lotfi, D. Daniel, P. Haldeman, and P. G. Charest, "Caffeine inhibits PI3K and mTORC2 in Dictyostelium and differentially affects multiple other cAMP chemoattractant signaling effectors.", Mol Cell Biochem, vol. 457, issue 1-2, pp. 157-168, 2019 Jul. PMCID: PMC6551265 PMID: 30879206
Islam, A. F. M. Tariqu, H. Yue, M. Scavello, P. Haldeman, W-J. Rappel, and P. G. Charest, "The cAMP-induced G protein subunits dissociation monitored in live Dictyostelium cells by BRET reveals two activation rates, a positive effect of caffeine and potential role of microtubules.", Cell Signal, vol. 48, pp. 25-37, 2018 Aug. PMID: 29698704
Scavello, M., A. R. Petlick, R. Ramesh, V. F. Thompson, P. Lotfi, and P. G. Charest, "Protein kinase A regulates the Ras, Rap1 and TORC2 pathways in response to the chemoattractant cAMP in .", J Cell Sci, vol. 130, issue 9, pp. 1545-1558, 2017 05 01. PMCID: PMC5450229 PMID: 28302905
Khanna, A., P. Lotfi, A. J. Chavan, N. M. Montaño, P. Bolourani, G. Weeks, Z. Shen, S. P. Briggs, H. Pots, P. J. M. Van Haastert, et al., "The small GTPases Ras and Rap1 bind to and control TORC2 activity.", Sci Rep, vol. 6, pp. 25823, 2016 05 13. PMCID: PMC4865869 PMID: 27172998
Islam, A. F. M. Tariqu, B. M. Stepanski, and P. G. Charest, "Studying Chemoattractant Signal Transduction Dynamics in Dictyostelium by BRET.", Methods Mol Biol, vol. 1407, pp. 63-77, 2016. PMID: 27271894
Charest, P. G., Z. Shen, A. Lakoduk, A. T. Sasaki, S. P. Briggs, and R. A. Firtel, "A Ras signaling complex controls the RasC-TORC2 pathway and directed cell migration.", Dev Cell, vol. 18, issue 5, pp. 737-49, 2010 May 18. PMCID: PMC2893887 PMID: 20493808