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Prevention & Treatment of Cancers Research Projects: |
I obtained my bachelor’s degree in biochemistry at Lanzhou University and my medical master’s degree in medical genetics at Southeast University Medical School. Both of these are two leading Chinese universities. My Ph.D. was earned in cancer genetics at Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Krolinska Institute is one of the largest Medical University in Europe and the highest ranked university in clinical medicine and pharmacy in Europe, one of the top ten medical schools in the world. The Nobel Assembly/committee (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine) is located at Karolinska Institutet. With strong interest, enterprise and ambition in medical research, I took more than 20 key advanced courses involving many aspects of molecular medicine such as molecular mechanism of genetic diseases, position cloning, gene expression, gene targeting, molecular genetics of cancer, protein structure, signal transduction, genetic epidemiology, bioinformatics, etc., which also benefited me greatly in my later research. These trainings conferred upon me the ability to design experiments independently, analyze and present data and work effectively in a diverse, team-based environment. I possess more than 20 years of research experience and five years of teaching experience in medical genetics and molecular biology at different academic institutions in China, Sweden, and the United States. I obtained six grants when I was in China. To date, I have been involved in 19 projects. My performance in those institutions has always been outstanding, playing the role of a key member and acting as a mentor/supervisor for other postdoctoral fellows/scientists. Because of my distinguished research ability and strong responsibility and problem-solving capability, I was frequently invited to collaborate with other scientists intramurally and extramurally. I have made noteworthy contributions to medical science and demonstrated records of recognized accomplishments. During the period of 1990-1995, I was awarded many times for my achievements. Furthermore, I was elected as an excellent researcher/teacher pacesetter in our 4,000-staff medical university and was set up to be the outstanding youth scientist by Chinese Railway Ministry (the medical university was affiliated with Chinese Railway Ministry at that time). In December, 1995, I was offered a position of associate professor. During the period of 1996 to 2000, as a Ph.D. student in Karolinska Institute, Sweden, I obtained scholarship twice for determining the mutation specturm of breast cancer susceptibility genes in Swedish population. Then, I moved to the United States to work as a postdoctoral fellow in 2000. I identified two kideny cancer-related genes, NORE1 and LSAMP by positional cloning strategy. For this, I was awarded the AACR-Bristol-Myers Squibb Oncology Scholar-in Training Award and invited to give an oral presentarion at the 94th Annual Meeting of American Association of Cancer Research (2004). This was published in the highly rated peer-reviewed journal Cancer Cell in 2003. Moreover, the study was identified as “newsworthy” for the year’s AACR Annual Meeting, and I was invited to participate in media outreach process, media events and a press release. In 2009, I successfully developed 5 Bhd conditional knockout mouse models (Bhd-CMV-Cre, Bhd-Ksp-Cre, Bhd-Sglt2-Cre, Bhd-ER-Cre, and Bhd-Villin -Cre). Then, I was again awarded the AACR Sanofi-Aventis Scholar-in-Training Award in the 100th American Association of Cancer Research Meeting. In addition, as a co-author, I participated in the development of the Hrpt2 knockout mouse model in our laboratory. I also established Bhd-null mouse kidney cell lines and set-up Bhd-related cancer allograft/xenograft mouse models To date, I have completed 17 research projects independently or collaboratively, and published more than 70 papers. These projects involve breast cancer, colorectal cancer, endometrial carcinoma, kidney cancer and other genetic diseases, including the genetic studies of more than 10 other disease-related genes such as breast-cancer related genes (BRCA1, BRCA2), p53, ATM, PTEN, STK11, TDF, RAS, MEN1, HNPCC genes, etc. Particularly, I have identified two cancer-related genes, NORE1 and LSAMP. As coauthor, I was implicated in the identification of another two cancer-related genes (HRPT2 and BHD). Recently I have developed two BHD knockout mouse models, and involved in the development of HRPT2 knockout mouse model. I am also working on BHD-related signaling transduction pathway. Currently, I am continuing to work on the BHD knockout mouse models. These models are extremely interesting because BHD knockout mice develop multiple histological types of kidney cancer through activation of mTOR and other pathways. These knockout allograft/xenograft mouse models will provide powerful tools for studies on tumor microenvironment, angiogenesis, metastasis, and even cancer stem cells. I have collected a few hundreds of mouse kidney cancer samples (paraffin blocks and fresh tissues), which are particularly valuable for future studies. My ultimate goal is to identify drug targets and biomarkers through these mouse models and translate the discoveries to pharmaceutical and clinical application. |
