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K-State Today

April 13, 2015

K-State Alumni Fellow, head of National Cancer Institute laboratory to give talk April 15

Submitted by Marcia Locke

Dr. Bob Kinders, A&S Alumni Fellow

Kansas State University College of Arts & Sciences Alumni Fellow Robert Kinders will give a presentation for the Division of Biology seminar series at 4 p.m. April 15, at 221 Ackert Hall.

Kinders is head of the Pharmacodynamics assay development laboratory at Frederick National Laboratory, part of the National Cancer Institute. The lab is charged with development and validation of assays to measure the effects, at the molecular level, of new, targeted anticancer agents in first-in-man clinical trials at the institute's Clinical Center.

The success rate for anticancer agents entering clinical trials is no more than 5 percent. Kinders' research program is focused on the development of advanced, robust assays of targeted drug action in patient specimens, including biopsies and circulating tumor cells, with the objective of confirming or disproving the proposed mechanism of the investigational agent in early stage clinical trials.

Kinders' presentation, "Pharmacological activity of the Wee-1 checkpoint kinase inhibitor MK-1775 in a Phase 1 clinical trial," will review the pharmacodynamics data generated for the small molecule checkpoint inhibitor MK-1775, targeting the nuclear kinase WEE-1, in a Phase 1 clinical trial.

Kinders received his doctorate in biology from Kansas State in 1980. He is a longtime member of the advisory council of the university's Johnson Cancer Research Center, whose founding director and namesake, the late Terry C. Johnson, was his faculty mentor.

Kinders did his postdoctoral training at K-State and at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He also has worked extensively in the medical devices industry, including at Abbott Laboratories and C.R. Bard, and in pharmaceutical development, at Abbot Labs and CuraGen.

Kinders is one of two College of Arts & Sciences Alumni Fellows in 2015. He will visit campus April 15-16 as part of the K-State Alumni Fellows Program, which is sponsored by the Deans Council, the Office of the President and the K-State Alumni Association. The program recognizes alumni who have distinguished themselves in their careers.

The Johnson Cancer Research Center is serving as Kinders' campus host. Inquiries about his schedule or related events should be directed to the center's director, Rob Denell, at rdenell@k-state.edu or 785-532-6705.

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