Ian Watson
Assistant Professor
Biochemistry
McGill University
Canada
Biography
2010 - PhD, University of Toronto
Research Interest
Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer. Detected in its earliest stages, melanoma is highly curable; however, the 5-year survival rate declines drastically for regional and distant metastatic disease. Recently, melanoma has emerged as the latest success story for both genomics- and immune-guided targeted therapy. Cutaneous melanoma is characterized by hotspot mutations in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) regulators, BRAF and NRAS, found in approximately 50% and 25% of patients, respectively. The identification of these oncogenic mutations has led to the development of small molecule inhibitors targeting MAPK kinase kinases (MEK) and BRAF in melanoma. Although antitumor responses to MAPK targeted therapies have been dramatic; they are rarely durable. Furthermore, novel therapies targeting inhibitory immune checkpoint proteins have recently shown impressive clinical efficacy; nevertheless, biomarkers that predict response remain unclear.
Publications
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Yen J, White RM, Wedge DC, Van Loo P, de Ridder J, Capper A, Richardson J, Jones D, Raine K, Watson IR, Wu CJ, Cheng J, Martincorena I, Nik-Zainal S, Mudie L, Moreau Y, Marshall J, Ramakrishna M, Tarpey P, Shlien A, Whitmore I, Gamble S, Latimer C, Langdon E, Kaufman C, Dovey M, Taylor A, Menzies A, McLaren S, O Meara S, Butler A, Teague J, Lister J, Chin L, Campbell P, Adams DJ, Zon LI, Patton EE, Stemple DL, Futreal PA. The genetic heterogeneity and mutational burden of engineered melanomas in zebrafish models. Genome Biology. 2013 Oct 23;14(10):R113.
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Watson IR*, Li L*, Cabeceiras PK, Mahdavi M, Gutschner T, Genovese G, Wang G, Fang Z, Tepper JM, Stemke-Hale K, Tsai KY, Davies MA, Mills GB, Chin L. The RAC1 P29S Hotspot Mutation in Melanoma Confers Resistance to Pharmacological Inhibition of RAF. Cancer Research. 2014 Sep 1;74(17):4845-52.*Equal Contribution
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Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network (Watson IR*). Comprehensive Genomic Characterization of Cutaneous Melanoma. Cell. 2015 Jun 18;161(7):1681-96. *Project co-Chair and co-corresponding author
