Kathleen Mulvaney, Ph.D.
"By understanding how cells communicate inside tumors, we may be able to develop treatments for cancers for which few therapeutic options are currently available."
Exploring cellular communication to find cancer treatments
What can understanding protein-protein interactions tell us about how cancers develop and grow?
Kathleen Mulvaney's long-standing research focus is understanding and disrupting protein-protein interactions and protein modifications in cancer, and translating that knowledge into meaningful clinical improvements for patient care. Some enzymes show altered gene expression or activity in cancer or become a genetic requirement/dependency that the tumor relies on for survival. Dr. Mulvaney seeks to identify and characterize these dependencies in cancers of the pancreas and pediatric and adult brain cancers. Understanding what a tumor requires to survive may provide a pathway to killing it.
kathleenmulvaney@vt.edu
Children's National Research & Innovation Campus in Washington, D.C.
Room 6225
(202) 960-1854
- Assistant Professor, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC
- Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine
Mulvaney, KM; Bozal, FK; Sellers, WR. Monitoring and disrupting cellular PRMT5-substrate adaptor complex formation in in-tact and permeabilized cells using a split luciferase complementation assay. STAR Protocols, Cell Press. Manuscript in preparation.
Mulvaney, KM; Blomquist, C; Acharya, N; Li, R; Ranaghan, MJ; O’Keefe, M; Rodriguez, DJ; Young, MJ; Kesar, D; Pal, D; Stokes, M; Nelson, AJ; Jain, SS; Yang, A; Mullin-Bernstein, Z; Columbus, J; Bozal, FK; Skepner, A; Raymond, D; … Sellers, WR. Molecular basis for substrate recruitment to the PRMT5 methylosome. Molecular Cell. 2021, 81(17)17, P3481-3495.
McKinney, DC; McMillan, BJ; Ranaghan, MJ; Moroco, JA; Brousseau, M; Mullin-Bernstein, Z; O’Keefe, M; McCarren, P; Mesleh, M; Mulvaney, KM; Robinson, F; Singh, R; Bajrami, B; Wagner, FF; Hilgraf, R; Drysdale, MJ; Campbell, AJ; Skepner, A; Timm, DE; Porter, D; Kaushik, VK; Sellers, WR; Ianari, A. Discovery of a First-in-Class Inhibitor of the PRMT5–Substrate Adaptor Interaction. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 2021, 64 (15), 11148-11168. PMID:34342224.
Tamir*, TY; Mulvaney, KM*; M. Ben Major. Dissecting the Keap1/Nrf2 pathway through
proteomics. Curr. Opin. Toxicol. 2, (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cotox.2016.10.007. (*equal contribution)
Mulvaney, KM.; Matson, J.; Siesser, P.; Tamir, TY; Goldfarb, D.; Jacobs, T.; Cloer, EW; Cook, JG; Major, MB. Identification and Characterization of MCM3 as a KEAP1 Substrate. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2016 Nov 4; 291(45): 23719–23733.
The Broad Institute; Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Cambridge, Mass., Postdoctoral Fellow
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Graduate Student
Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University, Research Assistant
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Ph.D., Cell Biology
- University of Rochester, B.S., Biology
- National Institutes of Health F32 Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (2018-2021)
- National Institutes of Health LRP Award (2019-2021)
- Sigma Xi Research Society Graduate Student Travel Award (2015)
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention (2011, 2012)
- Degree with Distinction in Research: an honor awarded by the University of Rochester (2009)
- National Science Foundation David T. Kearns Scholar (2008-2010)
- Take Five Scholar: Awarded tuition-free fifth year by the University of Rochester to study “Influences on Cognitive and Personality Development” (2009- 2010)
- Academic Competitiveness Grant awarded by New York State (2007- 2008)
- International Baccalaureate Scholar awarded as a four-year merit scholarship (2005- 2009)
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Finding community and focus in interdisciplinary cancer research , article Date: Apr 11, 2025 - -
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Article ItemRare Disease Day brings worldwide attention to more than 7,000 rare diseases , article
Virginia Tech research into rare diseases — those that individually affect 200,000 or fewer but collectively touch 1 in 10 people in the U.S. — provides hope in identifying, treating, and supporting patients.
Date: Feb 28, 2024 - -
Article ItemFrom healthy development to cancer treatments, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute scientists aim for impact , article
New Seale Innovation Fund projects fuel a broad spectrum of research focused on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, stress, brain development, and more.
Date: Jan 29, 2024 - -
Article Item2023 marks a year of firsts for Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health Graduate Program , article
The interdisciplinary program saw its first student assigned full-time to a Fralin Biomedical Research Institute lab in Washington, D.C., its first students from Nepal and Ghana in an internationally diverse incoming cohort, and its first student to be awarded a prestigious grant for future physician-scientists.
Date: Dec 15, 2023 - -
Article ItemNew cancer drug shows promise in targeting genetic weakness in tumors, Virginia Tech expert says , article
In an invited review article in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, Kathleen Mulvaney, assistant professor with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, talks about the potential of a new drug that has shown early promise in clinical trials for solid tumors by killing cancer cells that lack specific genes.
Date: Nov 01, 2023 - -
Article ItemCommon challenge, different strategies: Virginia Tech Cancer Research Alliance gathers broad mix of researchers and clinicians , article
The second annual Virginia Tech Cancer Research Alliance retreat, hosted this year on the Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus, brought together scientists and physicians on the leading edge of developing innovative therapy types, fresh biological targets, and new technologies to take on cancer.
Date: Jun 21, 2023 - -
Article ItemNew cancer biologist targets ‘Achilles heel’ in deadly brain cancers , article
Cancer biologist Kathleen Mulvaney joins the faculty of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC on Oct. 1. Her lab will be in Washington, D.C., on the Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus as part of a partnership between Virginia Tech and Children’s National.
Date: Sep 27, 2022 -
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