| Kevan Michael Shokat | |
| Birth Place: | Boulder City, Nevada, US |
| Field: | Chemical biology |
| Work Institution: | Princeton University University of California, San Francisco |
| Alma Mater: | Reed College University of California, Berkeley |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Peter G. Schultz |
| Academic Advisors: | Christopher Goodnow |
Kevan Michael Shokat (born August 26, 1964)[1] is an American chemical biologist. He is a Professor and chair in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at University of California, San Francisco, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley, and an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Shokat received his B.A, in chemistry from Reed College in 1986, completing his thesis, "Synthesis of a precursor of PRCPCP, a non-hydrolyzable analog of phosphoribosylpyrophosphate (PRPP)," with Ron McClard, and his Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley in 1991, under Peter G. Schultz.
Shokat is one of the leading figures in the field of chemical genetics.[2] He uses methods of bioorganic chemistry to elucidate signal transduction pathways at the single cell and whole organism levels, and is particularly interested in protein kinases, and developing methods to elucidate the particular targets of each kinase, such as the Bump and hole method.
In 2013 Shokat published the first covalent inhibitors of KRAS G12C using a tethering screen.[3] Following this strategy many pharma companies have developed KRAS programs leading to phase I/II clinical trials in this space, a landmark for what was once thought to be an undruggable oncogene.