Robert Kortum M.D., Ph.D.

Education

Ph.D. - University of Nebraska Medical School, 2004
M.D. - University of Nebraska Medical School, 2006

Biography

Dr. Rob Kortum is an Associate Professor in Pharmacology and Molecular Therapeutics and is the Director of the MD/PhD Program at Uniformed Services University. Dr. Kortum completed his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where he worked with Dr. Robert Lewis studying how the molecular scaffold KSR1 controls RAS-dependent physiologic and pathogenic signaling. He did his postdoctoral work at the NIH where he was awarded a Pharmacology Research and Training (PRAT) fellowship for his work with Dr. Lawrence Samelson studying how RAS activation regulates T cell development. After finishing his post-doctoral training, Dr. Kortum worked as a staff scientist with Dr. Deborah Morrison at NCI Frederick where he received an NCI Director’s Award to develop drug screening assays to identify inhibitors of the RAS/RAF interaction for use in RAS-mutated cancers. Dr. Kortum joined USU in 2015 where his group focuses on assessing strategies designed to enhance efficacy of and delay resistance to targeted therapies in RTK/RAS pathway mutated cancers. Dr. Kortum serves as a member of the APOLLO NCI/DoD/VA Network Proteogenimics consortium steering committee and on Scientific Review Committees for both the Murtha Cancer Center and the ORIEN Cancer Network.

Career Highlights: Positions, Projects, Deployements, Awards and Additional Publications

2017 - CDMRP Lung Cancer Research Program Career Development Award

2018 - Science Signaling - 'Oncogenic Ras isoforms show a hierarchical requirement for SOS2 to drive transformation'

2019 - CDMRP Lung Cancer Research Program IDEA Development Award

2020 - eLife - 'Marked synergy by vertical inhibition of EGFR signaling in NSCLC spheroids shows SOS1 is a therapeutic target in EGFR-mutated cancer'

2020 - USU Henry C. Wu Award for excellence in basic science research

2022 - NCI R01 and R21 Awards

2023 - PNAS - 'SOS1 and KSR1 modulate MEK inhibitor responsiveness to target resistant cell populations based on PI3K and KRAS mutation status'

2024 - iScience - 'In situ modeling of acquired resistance to RTK/RAS pathway targeted therapies'

2025 - Cancer Research - 'SOS1 Inhibition Enhances the Efficacy of KRASG12C Inhibitors and Delays Resistance in lung adenocarcinoma'

2025 - CDMRP Lung Cancer Research Program IDEA Development Award

Representative Bibliography