Dr. Fernandez-Zapico is a Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at the Mayo Clinic. His research program seeks to understand of the molecular mechanisms regulating pancreatic cancer, a devastating disease predicted to be the second cause of cancer death in 2030. His thematic interests include: (1) the discovery and characterization of new epigenetic pathways regulating pancreatic tumor microenvironment, in particular the inflammatory and pro-fibrogenic response within this cellular compartment; (2) define the role of nuclear organization in the aberrant activation of oncogenic gene expression and its impact in the development pancreatic cancer; and (3) identification of new transcriptional complexes mediating KRAS induced pancreatic carcinogenesis.