My research interests include understanding how dysregulated cellular signaling pathways drive pancreatic tumorigenesis. Specifically, the pathway regulated by the transcription factor nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kB) has been demonstrated to play a critical role in the development and progression of pancreatic cancer. Thus, we have been investigating the NF-kB pathway as a promising target. For these translational studies, our laboratory employs several pre-clinical animal models (standard flank tumor and patient pancreatic tumor tissue xenografts, carcinogen-induced hamster model, genetically engineered mice) to evaluate the chemopreventative and chemotherapeutic potential of various agents for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.