Kimberley J. Evason

Kimberley J. Evason is an Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and heads the Hepatobiliary Pathology division. She directs a basic science research program at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, focusing on liver tumorigenesis mechanisms to develop improved therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Her lab utilizes transgenic zebrafish models to study β-catenin-activated HCC and screen for druggable pathways.

• MD/PhD from Washington University in St. Louis
• Residency and fellowship at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
• Board Certified in Anatomic Pathology (American Board of Pathology)

Research Interests include:

• Targeted therapies for β-catenin-activated HCC
• JNK and serotonergic antidepressants in liver tumor suppression
• Conserved genetic mechanisms in zebrafish and human HCC
• Lipid and mitochondrial metabolism in liver disease
• Zebrafish as a platform for chemical screening
• Epigenetic and transcriptional regulation in liver cancer

Recent Publications highlight her work on:

• β-Catenin signaling in liver tumor development
• Novel therapeutic agents (e.g., amitriptyline, JNK inhibitors)
• Lysosomal biogenesis and metabolic dysregulation in HCC
• Role of microRNAs in inflammation and metabolic disease

Scientific Awards:

• Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellowship Award
• K08 award from NIH/NCI

Lab Members: The Evason Lab employs zebrafish models to study liver cancer, with current members including Gabriel DeNiro (undergraduate student), Sharanya Kalasekar (postdoctoral fellow), Chloe Lim (undergraduate student), Liam O’Brien (technician), and Richard Smith (lab specialist).