News

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

Dr. Chunru Lin received one of the awards of FY2021 Faculty Scholar.  This award was established to recognize faculty who exhibit outstanding abilities and excellence early on in their career path.  The Faculty Scholar Award awards a salary supplementation and allotment for research, clinical, or academic activity support during the 3 year duration of the award.