# Kevan M. Shokat

Source: https://onco.cc/people/kevan-shokat/  
OnCo record `kevan-shokat` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The chemist whose lab found the hidden pocket in KRAS G12C that made the 'undruggable' target druggable.

## Summary

Kevan Shokat is Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at UCSF, within the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. A chemical biologist specialising in KRAS and kinase inhibitors, his 2013 discovery of covalent inhibitors binding the switch-II pocket of KRAS G12C made a target long called undruggable druggable and opened the path to sotorasib and adagrasib. His papers include the Nature report that K-Ras(G12C) inhibitors allosterically control GTP affinity and effector interactions and the Nature paper on a chemical switch for inhibitor-sensitive alleles of any protein kinase, the bump-hole approach. His work bears on lung, colorectal and pancreatic cancer.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Role: Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, UCSF; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Specialisms: Chemical biology; KRAS; Kinase inhibitors

## Sources

- UCSF profile: https://profiles.ucsf.edu/search/?searchtype=people&searchfor=Kevan%20M.%20Shokat
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Shokat%20KM%5BAuthor%5D
- Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Kevan%20M.%20Shokat

## Connected records

- cancers: [Colorectal cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/colorectal/), [KRAS G12C-mutant non-small-cell lung cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/kras-g12c-nsclc/), [KRAS G12C-mutant pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/kras-g12c-pdac/), [Metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/metastatic-pdac/), [Non-small-cell lung cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/nsclc/), [Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/pancreatic/)
- technologies: [KRAS & RAS inhibitors](https://onco.cc/technologies/kras-inhibitors/), [Small-molecule kinase inhibitors](https://onco.cc/technologies/kinase-inhibitors/)
- targets: [KRAS](https://onco.cc/targets/kras/)
- drugs: [Adagrasib](https://onco.cc/drugs/adagrasib/), [Sotorasib](https://onco.cc/drugs/sotorasib/)
- institutions: [UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center](https://onco.cc/institutions/ucsf/)
- roadmaps: [Pancreatic cancer roadmap: from Whipple's operation to gemcitabine, FOLFIRINOX, adjuvant chemotherapy, PARP inhibition, KRAS inhibition, vaccines and the surveillance question](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/pancreatic-roadmap/)
- key papers: [Ostrem and Shokat: the hidden pocket that made KRAS G12C druggable](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-ostrem-kras-g12c-nature-2013/)

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