Overview
Dr. Umar is a postdoctoral associate in the Macias Lab in Pathology Department, at Duke University. He received his Ph.D. degree from the School of Life Sciences, University of Kashmir, India, where he studied the therapeutic potential of combination therapy and drug repurposing in TNBC. He is currently studying the non-canonical signaling cascade of AMPK-related kinases in neuroendocrine prostate tumors and exploring more effective therapies for advanced and neuroendocrine prostate tumors.
Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations
Postdoctoral Associate
Pathology,
Clinical Science Departments
Recent Scholarly Works
Abstract 4749: Evaluating NUAK2 as a potential target in neuroendocrine prostate cancer
Journal article Cancer Research · April 21, 2025 AbstractBackground:Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer (NEPC) is an aggressive and lethal prostate cancer subtype. Due to Androgen Receptor ... Full text CiteChloroquine sensitises hypoxic colorectal cancer cells to ROS-mediated cell death via structural disruption of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 1.
Journal article Free radical biology & medicine · February 2025 Chloroquine (CQ), an autophagy antagonist, has been recently explored as a repurposable medicine for cancer; however the exact mechanism of its action is still not known. The present study investigated the effect of CQ on colorectal cancer cells to elucida ... Full text CiteTopical retinoid drug Adapalene: A new frontier in cancer treatment
Journal article Results in Chemistry · August 1, 2024 It is predicted that over 29 million individuals will receive a cancer diagnosis in 2040, making cancer one of the major causes of death globally. One of the biggest obstacles to being overcome in the treatment of cancer is drug resistance, which is mostly ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
NUAK2 as a novel splicing regulatory kinase in Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Department of Defense · 2025 - 2027View All Grants