Frank Stegmeier

Frank Stegmeier has led large-scale CRISPR synthetic lethality screening programs in the pharmaceutical industry, identifying genotype-specific cancer vulnerabilities that inform drug development strategies. His work identified PRMT5 as a synthetic lethal target in MTAP-deleted cancers, a dependency present in approximately 15% of all cancers that is now being pursued with clinical-stage PRMT5 inhibitors. He has systematically screened for paralog synthetic lethalities where cancer-specific loss of one gene family member creates dependency on its paralog. His screening programs integrate CRISPR loss-of-function data with pharmacological profiling to prioritize targets with both genetic validation and chemical tractability for drug development.