{"entity":{"id":"owen-witte","kind":"person","name":"Owen N. Witte","aka":[],"tldr":"Discovered the BCR-ABL kinase activity that imatinib blocks and now hunts for new prostate cancer targets.","summary":"Owen Witte is University Professor and Founding Director Emeritus of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center at UCLA, within the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. A molecular biologist specialising in prostate cancer biology and kinase signalling, he identified the tyrosine kinase activity of the BCR-ABL oncoprotein, the basis of imatinib. His papers include the Cell report that an alteration of the human c-abl protein in K562 leukaemia cells unmasks associated tyrosine kinase activity and a Science study reprogramming normal human epithelial tissues to a common, lethal neuroendocrine cancer lineage. His laboratory now defines prostate cancer lineage plasticity and hunts for immunotherapy targets such as PSCA and STEAP1, alongside PSMA and the androgen receptor.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"UCLA profile","url":"https://www.uclahealth.org/providers?q=Owen%20N.%20Witte"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Witte%20ON%5BAuthor%5D"},{"label":"Google Scholar","url":"https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Owen%20N.%20Witte"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["prostate","cll"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":["psma","androgen-receptor","bcr-abl","steap1"],"drugs":["imatinib"],"companies":[],"institutions":["ucla-jonsson"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"University Professor; Founding Director Emeritus, Broad Stem Cell Research Center, UCLA","institutionId":"ucla-jonsson","specialisms":["Prostate cancer biology","Kinase signalling","Immunotherapy targets"],"profiles":[{"label":"UCLA profile","url":"https://www.uclahealth.org/providers?q=Owen%20N.%20Witte"},{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Witte%20ON%5BAuthor%5D"},{"label":"Google Scholar","url":"https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Owen%20N.%20Witte"}],"papers":[{"title":"An alteration of the human c-abl protein in K562 leukemia cells unmasks associated tyrosine kinase activity","journal":"Cell","year":1984,"url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(84)90438-0","doi":"10.1016/0092-8674(84)90438-0"},{"title":"Reprogramming normal human epithelial tissues to a common, lethal neuroendocrine cancer lineage","journal":"Science","year":2018,"url":"https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat5749","doi":"10.1126/science.aat5749"}]},"route":"/people/owen-witte/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"cll","kind":"cancer","name":"Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia","route":"/cancers/cll/"},{"id":"prostate","kind":"cancer","name":"Prostate cancer","route":"/cancers/prostate/"}],"target":[{"id":"androgen-receptor","kind":"target","name":"Androgen receptor","route":"/targets/androgen-receptor/"},{"id":"bcr-abl","kind":"target","name":"BCR::ABL1 (Philadelphia chromosome)","route":"/targets/bcr-abl/"},{"id":"psma","kind":"target","name":"PSMA","route":"/targets/psma/"},{"id":"steap1","kind":"target","name":"STEAP1","route":"/targets/steap1/"}],"drug":[{"id":"imatinib","kind":"drug","name":"Imatinib","route":"/drugs/imatinib/"}],"institution":[{"id":"ucla-jonsson","kind":"institution","name":"UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/ucla-jonsson/"}],"person":[{"id":"brian-druker","kind":"person","name":"Brian Druker","route":"/people/brian-druker/"}]}}