Background
Dr. Robert Casero is professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and associate director for shared resources at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
Dr. Casero is a molecular pharmacologist and his research focuses on developing drugs that target critical pathways for chemotherapy and chemoprevention, including amine metabolism, epigenetic regulation and inflammation.
His team cloned and characterized the major enzymes in polyamine catabolism and developed agents to target these enzymes. In addition, his team helped discover and clone the first histone demethylase, lysine-specific methylase 1 (LSD1) and was the first to demonstrate the successful targeting of LSD1 with the purpose of reactivating aberrantly silenced, tumor suppressor genes.
Dr. Robert Casero and Dr. Tracy Murray Stewart, along with their team at Johns Hopkins University, were recognized by Snyder Robinson Foundation as the 2020 Outstanding Researchers. They have performed key research that has resulted in a better understanding of polyamine ratios in SRS patient cells. Importantly, they have demonstrated the ability to rebalance spermidine/spermine ratios through use of an existing FDA approved drug alone or in combination with a spermine mimetic. The approved pharmaceutical has been used successfully to treat children for another indication. This work is ongoing and holds promise of treating SRS and related symptoms.
Dr. Casero received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York and was a postdoctoral fellow in oncology at Johns Hopkins.
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