Christine M. Chresta
Cancer biologist at AstraZeneca who led the preclinical description of AZD8055, one of the first ATP-competitive mTOR kinase inhibitors to reach clinical testing
Oncology iMed, AstraZeneca, Alderley Park (PubMed affiliation 2009–2016, at the time of the study) · School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester (1996, with John Hickman)
Rapamycin does not block mTOR completely. It sticks to the side of the enzyme and blocks only some outputs of mTORC1, and it leaves mTORC2, the second mTOR complex, largely untouched. Christine Chresta was first author of the 2009 Cancer Research paper in this Atlas (CHR2009) that described AZD8055, a drug that plugs the ATP pocket of mTOR, the site where the enzyme takes up its energy source. AZD8055 therefore blocks both complexes, including the outputs that resist rapamycin. In cancer cells and in mouse tumour models it slowed growth. The result was in cells and animals, not patients.
Chresta was one of the AstraZeneca scientists on a 2009 Biochemical Journal paper with Dario Alessi's group in Dundee describing Ku-0063794, another selective mTOR kinase inhibitor, and on a 2012 study combining AZD8055 with the MEK inhibitor selumetinib in mouse models of lung and colorectal cancer.
Earlier, at the University of Manchester, Chresta worked with John Hickman on how p53 and apoptosis, the cell's programmed death, shape the response of tumours to chemotherapy (1996 and 1999). Later AstraZeneca papers place the author in Oncology iMed at Alderley Park, working on molecular subtypes of lung and colorectal cancer (2013 to 2016). A current position could not be confirmed.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | M | AZD8055 is a potent, selective, and orally bioavailable ATP-competitive mammalian target of rapamycin kinase inhibitor with in vitro and in vivo antitumor activity CHR2009 First author: described AZD8055, an ATP-competitive mTOR kinase inhibitor that blocks both mTORC1 and mTORC2 and slows tumour growth in mice. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Christine M. Chresta.
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- Martin Pass Pharmaceutical drug-discovery leader who worked on AstraZeneca's oncology small-molecule programs, including the ATP-competitive mTOR kinase inhibitor AZD8055.
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