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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is one of the most lethal malignancies worldwide, with a very poor prognosis and a 5-year survival rate less than 9%. This dismal outcome is largely due to lack of early diagnosis, quick disease progression, high rate of post-surgery recurrence and resistance to conventional therapies. Oncogenic Kras mutation is a well-defined hallmark of pancreatic cancer. It is presented in over 95% cases and leads to constitutively active form of Kras protein. Kras still remains as an undruggable target due to absence of a well-defined drug-binding domain. With the aim to fight against Ras-driven cancers, high priority has been given to the novel therapeutic strategies targeting Ras-dependent signalling. P21-activated kinases (PAKs) are a family of serine/threonine kinases that are important down-stream effectors of multiple small GTPases including Ras, Rac1 and Cdc42. Based on the difference in the structure and sequence, all the six members of PAK family are divided into two groups: group I (PAK1-3) and group II (PAK4-6). PAK1 and PAK4 are the most widely studied members and have been reported to be up-regulated in PDA. PAK1 is situated at the convergence of multiple signalling pathways that are associated with cell proliferation, survival/apoptosis, migration/invasion and cytoskeletal regulation. Immunotherapy is now emerging as a promising treatment in the era of personalised anti-cancer therapeutics. However, it can only bring limited clinical benefits for PDA patients, which is largely attributed to the immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment (TME). The role of PAK1 has not been fully elucidated in pancreatic cancer, especially its involvement in re-programming TME. The work presented in this thesis investigated the role of PAK1 in tumour biology and therapeutic regimens, with a focus on its linkage to stroma modulation and anti-tumour immune response. Firstly, the anti-tumour effect of a potent PAK inhibitor (PF-3758309) was determi