Research Interests
Working on a disease that has seen few advances in the last 30 years, Theodorescu has emerged as a leading translational bladder cancer researcher. Theodorescu is known for his work on the molecular mechanisms underlying bladder cancer and tools that determine drug response as well as discovery of new drugs for several cancer types. Examples include discovery of genes that regulate tumor growth and metastasis (RhoGDI2, CD24, AGL, GON4L) in bladder and other cancers and novel biomarkers (DNA/NGS, RNA and proteomic) and concepts for precision therapeutic approaches such as the COXEN principle, that are currently being tested in national (SWOG) clinical trials. He led the discovery and development of a “first in class” RalGTPase inhibitor as a new therapeutic in several human cancer types which is now in commercial development. Recent efforts in our lab have focused on understanding the biology of Telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and using that knowledge to develop novel inhibitors to this critical protein in cancer. Finally, active efforts are currently aimed at identifying immune system agonists or antagonists that modulate tumor behavior in vivo as well as the identification of novel combination therapies that enhance the effectiveness of checkpoint and other immunotherapy.