Announcing the First Quantum-Si Pioneer Grant Winner: Resha Rajkarnikar
January 12, 2026 • Meredith Carpenter, PhD
We’re thrilled to spotlight the first winner of our Pioneer Grant, Resha Rajkarnikar, a graduate student in Mythreye Karthikeyan’s lab at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Resha’s project focuses on an exciting and understudied area of cancer biology: the regulation and functional role of mitogen-activated protein kinase 15 (MAPK15) in ovarian cancer.
Atypical protein kinases, unlike their conventional counterparts, lack standard regulatory domains and rely heavily on post-translational modifications (PTMs) for stability and function. These kinases are increasingly recognized as key players in tumor progression and therapy resistance; however, the mechanisms by which they promote these effects remain poorly understood. These features make MAPK15 a compelling candidate for therapeutic exploration, especially in contexts like anoikis resistance (a hallmark of metastasis), where conventional kinase-targeted therapies often fail.
Resha’s team began with an unbiased RNA-seq screen, identifying MAPK15 as the only MAPK significantly altered under matrix detachment stress. Functional studies in ovarian cancer models revealed that MAPK15 promotes survival under stress without negatively affecting proliferation, a clue to its role in therapy resistance.
To dissect the kinase-dependent and independent mechanisms contributing to cell survival, the team engineered kinase-dead and C-terminal deletion mutants. Both showed impaired survival, underscoring the cooperative roles of kinase activity and the C-terminal domain. Analysis of data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) added another layer: MAPK15 mRNA is elevated 28-fold in tumors compared to normal tissue, correlating with poor survival in ovarian cancer patients.
The project now turns to Quantum-Si’s next-gen protein sequencing to better understand the PTM landscape and binding partners that stabilize MAPK15 and modulate its activity. By illuminating how MAPK15 supports cancer cell survival, this work could reveal compensatory mechanisms behind therapy resistance and open doors to innovative treatments targeting atypical kinases.
About the Pioneer Grant Program
The Quantum-Si Pioneer Grant program is designed to empower researchers tackling bold, high-impact questions in proteomics and protein biology. By providing access to cutting-edge, single-molecule protein sequencing technology for protein and PTM analysis, the program aims to accelerate discovery in areas where traditional approaches fall short. Sign up below to be notified when the next Pioneer Grant program application window opens!