New Educational Activity--MCO GSBS students' luncheon

Dr. Dihau Yu initiated an MCO-GSBS graduate student community monthly social to promote communications and enhance training experience among graduate students in MCO. Dr. Dihua Yu hosted the first luncheon on August 3, 2022 at Buca Di Beppo.

Drs. Chunru Lin and Haoqiang Ying met with MCO GSBS students along with first year GSBS students on Sept 9, 2022 at Hu's Cooking. 

Dr. Dihua Yu's interview on Youtube, May 28, 2022

Dr. Yu is the recipient of a Metavivor grant from Be Bold and Behold. Her ground-breaking research into brain metastasis is bringing us closer to making metastatic breast cancer a more treatable disease. The link is her interview by Be Bold and Behold on Youtube.

2022 AACR Scholar in Training Award - Dr. Mei-Kuang Kathy Chen, Postdoc Fellow, Mentor: Dr. Yu

Dr. Chen (standing, third from the left) attended the American Association for Cancer Research Scholar-in-Training Awards Reception, New Orleans, LA - The AACR 2022 Annual Meeting

Copyright 2022 AACR/Todd Buchanan (image credit)

2022 Endowed Fellowship Research Award Recipient

Dr.  Zhou Joe Jiang (mentor: Dr. Dihua Yu) is one of six recipients of the 2022 Harold C and Mary L Dailey Endowed Fellowship.

Presenter: Hironari Akasaka, Postdoc Fellow

Title: Impact of peritoneal lavage on omentum immune cell dynamics and metastasis

Summary: Peritoneal lavage ‘primes’ the omentum to be conducive for colonization by occult cancer cells that circulate in the peritoneal fluid.

Authors: Hironari Akasaka, Honami Naora

Presenter: Mei-Kuang Chen, Postdoc Fellow

Title: FGFR3 Mediated PARP1 Tyrosine 158 Phosphorylation Promotes PARP Inhibitor Resistance

Summary: We observed a high prevalence of activated fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) kinase in the PARPi-resistant triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. Biochemistry studies suggested that FGFR3-mediated PARP1 tyrosine 158 phosphorylation contributes to PARPi resistance. We further demonstrated that the combination of FGFR inhibitor and PARPi delayed DNA repair with prolonged PARP trapping. These findings reveal that the tyrosine 158 phosphorylated PARP1 may be an effective biomarker to indicate FGFR3 mediated PARPi resistance.

Authors: Mei-Kuang Chen, Yuan Gao, Weiya Xia, Yu-Han Wang, Jennifer K. Litton, Yu-Yi Chu, Funda Meric-Bernstam, Helen Piwnica-Worms, Banu Arun, Jordi Roden Ahnert, Yongkun Wei, Wei-Chao Chan, Hung-Ling Wang, Coya Tapia, Costance T. Albarracin, Shao-Chun Wang, Ying-Nai Wang, Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, Chunru Lin, Liuqing Yang, Dihua Yu, and Mien-Chie Hung

Presenter: Yimin Duan, Postdoc Fellow

Title: Assessing the effect of blocking CCL2-CCR2 axis on breast cancer brain metastasis

Summary: Targeting CCR2 or CCL2 results in differential response in multiple preclinical brain metasis models, which direct us to explore the function of CCR2 low myeloid cells in regulating brain metastasis progression.

Authors: Yimin Duan, Yutao Qi, Lin Zhang, Xiangliang Yuan, Dihua Yu

Presenter: Chunxiao Liu, Instructor

Title: RNase7-guided anti-ROS1 targeted therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma

Summary: This study explored an oncogenic role of RNase7 in HCC and provided a rationale to choose RNase7 as a potential plasma biomarker to stratify HCC patients for
anti-ROS1 targeted therapy.

Authors: Chunxiao Liu, Zhengyu Zha, Chenhao Zhou, Dihua Yu, Ning Ren and
Mien-Chie Hung

Presenter: Emily Shao-Ping Yang, Graduate Research Assistant

Title: HDAC inhibitor Panobinostat enhances efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitor via upregulating antigen presentation in breast cancer brain metastasis

Summary: Histone deacetylase inhibition (HDACi) reverses and augments expression of antigen presentation gene, major histocompatibility class I (MHC-I), in breast-to-brain metastasis, enhancing tumor recognition by cytotoxic CD8 T cells (CTLs) in combination of anti-PD1 immune checkpoint inhibitor.

Authors: Shao-Ping Yang, Yimin Duan, Xiangliang Yuan, Lin Zhang, Patrick Zhang, Jason Huse, Dihua Yu

Presenter: Arseniy Yuzhalin, Odyssey Fellow

Title: Interplay between CDK5 and IRF2BP1 enhances breast cancer brain metastasis

Summary: The observed interplay between CDK5 and IRF2BP1 reveals a previously unknown mechanism of MHC-I regulation in cancer cells, that might improve our knowledge about cancer cell immune evasion through MHC-I loss.

Authors: Arseniy Yuzhalin, Frank Lowery, Yohei Saito, Patrick Zhang, Dihua Yu

Presenter: Lin Zhang, Instructor

Title: EZH2 engages TGFb signaling to promote breast cancer bone metastasis via Integrin b1-FAK activation

Summary: We discovered integrin b1-FAK as a new downstream effector of EZH2 in breast cancer cells, and EZH2-integrin b1-FAK axis cooperates with TGFb signaling pathway to promote bone metastasis of breast cancer.

Authors: Lin Zhang, Jingkun Qu, Yutao Qi, Yimin Duan, Yu-Wen Huang, Zhifen Zhou, Ping Li, Jun Yao, Beibei Huang, Shuxing Zhang, Dihua Yu

Chunxiao Liu Ph.D. , first author in J Hepatology published in April 2021 (mentor: Dr. Dihua Yu )—2021 Harold C. and Mary L. Dailey Endowment Fellowship ($2000)

Arseniy Yuzhalin Ph.D., Odyssey Postdoc Fellow (mentor: Dr. Dihua Yu)—2021 Harold C. and Mary L. Dailey Endowment Fellowship ($2,000)