Nature Structural & Molecular Biology: Structural insight into how RAD51 paralog exchange regulates RAD51 filament formation (Rao, Libich, Wasmuth, Sung, Olsen et al)

April 24, 2026

 Yashpal Rawal, Youngho Kwon, Lijia Jia, Eliza A. Ruben, Jae-Hoon Ji, Lijuan Guo, Caleb M. Stratton, Digant Nayak, Miriam Tovar, Qingming Fang, Mohd Azrin Jamalruddin, Shuo Zhou, Sahiti Kuppa, Shahrez Syed, Angela M. Jasper, Jeffrey N. Katz, Cody M. Rogers, Hardeep Kaur, Lorena Samentar, Weixing Zhao, Eloise Dray, Fang Zhang, Svetla Stoilova-McPhie, Alexander B. Taylor, [...]

Science Advances: Selective elimination of circulating effector CD8 T cells via LTβR blockade separates anti-CD137 efficacy from toxicity (Lai, Chen)

April 24, 2026

 Sergey A. Shein  Anna A. Korchagina  Li-Ju Wang Zhao Lai, Yidong Chen  Jacob S. Fisher  Burkhard Ludewig Jessica N. Lancaster  Yang-Xin Fu , Ekaterina Koroleva and Alexei V. Tumanov Abstract The major barrier to clinical translation of αCD137 immunotherapy is separating antitumor efficacy from hepatotoxicity driven by IFN-γ–producing CD8 T cells. We propose a strategy to limit toxicity by promoting contraction of excessively expanded CD8 T cells. We identify [...]

Journal of Applied Physiology: Hyperactive Muscle mTORC1 Attenuates Functional Adaptations to Endurance Training Despite Alterations in Mitochondrial and Lipid Profiles (Lai Lab)

April 24, 2026

 Abstract Mechanistic target of rapamycin complex I (mTORC1) is a key regulator of cell growth and metabolism, and its activity increases with aging. Hyperactivation of mTORC1 is associated with the pathology of sarcopenia and mitochondrial dysfunction. Exercise training has been shown to improve muscle quality and function in people with sarcopenia. However, it is unknown [...]

Clinical Cancer Research: Preclinical Activity of the B7-H3-Targeting Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) Vobramitamab Duocarmazine (Vobra Duo) in Pediatric Cancer Solid Tumors (Chen, Houghton, Kurmasheva Lab)

April 22, 2026

  Edward Favours  Haiying Tang  Peyton Wong  Samuel Ghilu  Vanessa del Pozo  Elena Mironova  Yidong Chen  Tim Stearns  Steven Neuhauser  Eric J. Earley  Stephen W. Erickson Jee Young Kwon  Emily L. Jocoy  David Groff  Kateryna Krytska  Matthew Tsang  Beverly A. Teicher  Yael P. Mossé  E. Anders. Kolb  Monirath Hav  Deryk Loo  Peter J. Houghton  Carol J. [...]

Journal of Biological Chemistry: Structural Basis for the Mechanism and Stability of the EEPD1 5’ Endonuclease (Gupta Lab)

April 10, 2026

 Robert A. Hromas1,∗ guptay@uthscsa.edu ∙ Aruna S. Jaiswal1,∗ ∙ Anurag Misra2,∗ ∙ Yaxia Yuan3 ∙ Daohong Zhou3 ∙ John I. Beckman2 ∙ Shailee Arya2 ∙ Adhishree Chidambaram2 ∙ Alexander B. Taylor2 ∙ Wendell Griffith4 ∙ Arunima Jaiswal1 ∙ Elizabeth A. Williamson1 ∙ Yogesh K. Gupta2 guptay@uthscsa.edu  ABSTRACT The 5’ endonuclease EEPD1 initiates repair of replication forks stalled at oxidative DNA damage. EEPD1 has abasic endonuclease activity that can replace APE1 and initiate base excision repair when the cell is overwhelmed with oxidative DNA damage. In this study, we investigated the structural basis of this [...]

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology: Resolution of R-loops and transcription–replication conflicts by SETX–BRCA1–BARD1 complex (Sung Lab, Rao Lab)

April 1, 2026

 Abstract Senataxin (SETX), an RNA–DNA helicase, accumulates at transcription pause sites through the tumor suppressor BRCA1. Here, we provide mechanistic insight into how SETX–BRCA1 resolves transcription-associated R-loops to prevent deleterious outcomes. Specifically, we show that full-length SETX unwinds R-loops with broad specificity and that the complex of BRCA1 and its obligatory partner BARD1 binds R-loops [...]

BioRxiv: Diverse Mechanisms of SMARCB1 Inactivation and Genome Maintenance Defects in Ultra-Rare Malignant Rhabdoid Tumors (Kurmasheva Lab, Chen, Lai)

March 27, 2026

 Elizabeth Rasmussen, Elena Mironova, Zhao Lai, Kendra Maaß, Stefanie Volz, Dias Kurmashev, Stefan M. Pfister, Yidong Chen, Raushan T. Kurmasheva ABSTRACT Malignant rhabdoid tumors (MRTs) are extremely rare and highly aggressive pediatric cancers classically defined by biallelic loss of the SMARCB1 gene, with rare involvement of SMARCA4. However, the molecular mechanisms leading to this loss are not yet fully understood. MRTs occur predominantly in infants, with the highest incidence in children under one year of [...]

BioRxiv: Intrinsically disordered SERBP1 regulates translation through topology-driven G-quadruplex recognition (Libich Lab)

March 19, 2026

       Antoine Baudin, Hoang H. Dinh, Kira Breunig, Xuifen Lei, Xiaoping Xu, View Luiz O. Penalva, David S. Libich Abstract Serpine mRNA-binding protein 1 (SERBP1) is an intrinsically disordered RNA-binding protein that regulates translation and ribosome biogenesis through interactions with ribosomes and other molecular complexes. Despite its regulatory importance and implication in cancer [...]

iScience: Predicting and interpreting protein and phosphoprotein abundance from pan-cancer and single-cell transcriptomes (Chen Lab)

March 12, 2026

 Hui-Mei Tsai1,2,3,12 ∙ Tzu-Hung Hsiao2,4,5,12 ∙ Yu-Chiao Chiu6,7 ∙ Yufei Huang6,7 ∙ Eric Y. Chuang1,8,9,10 chuangey@ntu.edu.tw ∙ Yidong Chen3,11,13 cheny8@uthscsa.edu Highlights • DeepGxP provides a framework to translate transcriptomes into proteomic insight • DeepEnrich links RNA predictors to functional protein pathways and activities • DeepEnrich reveals cancer type-specific EGFR and HER2 phosphorylation patterns • Mutation effects are captured even without mutation data in model training Summary Proteins that impact phenotype and disease are [...]