Michael Ben Major, PhD

Michael Ben Major, PhD

Primary Academic Title

Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology, Washington University School of Medicine

Research Interest

Understanding how alterations in signal transduction pathways contribute to human cancer, and whether exploitation of that understanding can aid in the development of new diagnostics, prognosis and therapeutic intervention strategies

Education

  • 2004: PhD, University of Utah, Salt Lake City

Training

  • 2007 - 2009: Postdoctoral, pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle

Selected Research Publications

A Covalent Allosteric Molecular Glue Suppresses NRF2-Dependent Cancer Growth.
  • Roy N, Wyseure T, Lo IC, [...] Major MB, [...] Patricelli MP
  • Cancer Discov 2026
Pyrimethamine and a potent analog inhibit NRF2 by suppressing one-carbon metabolism.
  • Chembo J, Bowman BM, Lapak K, [...] Major MB
  • J Biol Chem 2025
Stable Cas9 expression regulates cell growth by facilitating mTORC2 activation.
  • Yu L, Jin Y, Chen J, [...] Major MB, Liu P
  • Nucleic Acids Res 2025
A SETD2-CDK1-lamin axis maintains nuclear morphology and genome stability.
  • Khan A, Zhang C, Nguyen PG, [...] Major MB, [...] Strahl BD
  • Nat Cell Biol 2025
Engineered Cas9 variants bypass Keap1-mediated degradation in human cells and enhance epigenome editing efficiency.
  • Chen J, Su S, Pickar-Oliver A, [...] Major MB, [...] Liu P
  • Nucleic Acids Res 2024
Mutant Nrf2E79Q enhances the promotion and progression of a subset of oncogenic Ras keratinocytes and skin tumors.
  • Witherspoon JG, Hall JR, Jima D, [...] Major MB, [...] Smart RC
  • Redox Biol 2024
Small molecule screen identifies pyrimethamine as an inhibitor of NRF2-driven esophageal hyperplasia.
  • Paiboonrungruang C, Xiong Z, Lamson D, [...] Ben Major M, Chen X
  • Redox Biol 2023
Targeted Proteomic Quantitation of NRF2 Signaling and Predictive Biomarkers in HNSCC.
  • Wamsley NT, Wilkerson EM, Guan L, [...] Major MB
  • Mol Cell Proteomics 2023

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