# Frank McCormick

Source: https://onco.cc/people/frank-mccormick/  
OnCo record `frank-mccormick` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

RAS biologist who founded Onyx Pharmaceuticals and led the NCI's national effort to drug RAS.

## Summary

Frank McCormick is Professor at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and former Scientific Lead of the RAS Initiative at the National Cancer Institute (NIH). A molecular biologist who has worked on RAS signalling for four decades, he founded Onyx Pharmaceuticals, the company behind the origins of sorafenib and carfilzomib, and served as scientific lead of the NCI RAS Initiative at Frederick National Laboratory. His papers include a Clinical Cancer Research review of KRAS as a therapeutic target and a Cancer Cell commentary on covalent KRAS inhibitors entering the clinic. His work on KRAS and RAS inhibitors bears on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, colorectal cancer and non-small-cell lung cancer.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Role: Professor, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center; former Scientific Lead, NCI RAS Initiative
- Specialisms: RAS biology; Signal transduction; Drug discovery

## Sources

- UCSF profile: https://profiles.ucsf.edu/search/?searchtype=people&searchfor=Frank%20McCormick
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=McCormick%20F%5BAuthor%5D
- Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Frank%20McCormick

## Connected records

- cancers: [Colorectal cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/colorectal/), [KRAS G12C-mutant pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/kras-g12c-pdac/), [Metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/metastatic-pdac/), [Non-small-cell lung cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/nsclc/), [Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/pancreatic/)
- technologies: [KRAS & RAS inhibitors](https://onco.cc/technologies/kras-inhibitors/)
- targets: [KRAS](https://onco.cc/targets/kras/)
- institutions: [Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research](https://onco.cc/institutions/frederick-national-lab/), [National Cancer Institute (NIH)](https://onco.cc/institutions/nci/), [UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center](https://onco.cc/institutions/ucsf/)
- journals: [Cancer Cell](https://onco.cc/journals/cancer-cell/)
- key papers: [Bischoff 1996: the adenovirus that was said to replicate only where p53 was lost](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-bischoff-onyx-015-science-1996/), [Most human carcinomas of the exocrine pancreas contain mutant c-K-ras genes](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-almoguera-kras-codon-12-pancreatic-cell-1988/)

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