Cancer Research: SNAI2-mediated repression of BIM protects rhabdomyosarcoma from ionizing radiation (Houghton, Ignatius, & Zheng Labs)

August 31, 2021

Long Wang, Nicole R. Hensch, Kathryn Bondra, Prethish Sreenivas, Xiang R. Zhao, Jiangfei Chen, Rodrigo Moreno Campos, Kunal Baxi, Angelina V. Vaseva, Benjamin D. Sunkel, Berkley E. Gryder, Silvia Pomella, Benjamin Z. Stanton, Siyuan Zheng, Eleanor Y. Chen, Rossella Rota, Javed Khan, Peter J. Houghton and Myron S. Ignatius Abstract Ionizing radiation (IR) and chemotherapy are mainstays of treatment for patients with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), yet the molecular mechanisms that underlie the success or failure of radiotherapy remain unclear. The transcriptional repressor SNAI2 was previously identified as a key regulator of IR sensitivity in […]

Science Advances: Predicting and characterizing a cancer dependency map of tumors with deep learning (Aune, Chen, Rao, Houghton & Zheng Labs)

August 24, 2021

Yu-Chiao Chiu1, Siyuan Zheng1,2, Li-Ju Wang1, View ORCID ProfileBrian S. Iskra1, View ORCID ProfileManjeet K. Rao1,3, Peter J. Houghton1,4, View ORCID ProfileYufei Huang5,6,* and View ORCID ProfileYidong Chen1,2,* Abstract Genome-wide loss-of-function screens have revealed genes essential for cancer cell proliferation, called cancer dependencies. It remains challenging to link cancer dependencies to the molecular compositions of cancer [...]

Science Advances: Regulation of telomere homeostasis and genomic stability in cancer by N6-adenosine methylation (m6A) (Rao & Zheng Labs)

July 29, 2021

View ORCID ProfileJi Hoon Lee1,†, View ORCID ProfileJuyeong Hong1,†, View ORCID ProfileZhao Zhang1,†, View ORCID ProfileBárbara de la Peña Avalos2,3, View ORCID ProfileCecilia J. Proietti4, View ORCID ProfileAgustina Roldán Deamicis4, View ORCID ProfilePablo Guzmán G.5, Hung-Ming Lam6, Jose Garcia6, Martine P. Roudier6, View ORCID ProfileAnthony E. Sisk7, View ORCID ProfileRichard De La Rosa1, View ORCID ProfileKevin Vu8, Mei Yang1, Yiji Liao1, View ORCID ProfileJessica Scheirer1, View ORCID ProfileDouglas Pechacek1, Pooja Yadav9,10, View ORCID […]

Nighat Noureen, PhD, Awarded CPRIT Postdoctoral Training Award (Zheng Lab)

March 10, 2021

    Congratulations to Nighat Noureen, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Greehey CCRI principal investigator, Siyuan Zheng, PhD, on recently being awarded a CPRIT fellowship training grant. Dr. Noureen joined Dr. Zheng’s lab in June 2018. Her first project was to develop a computational method to quantify telomerase activity in cancer and […]

Cell Press: A Modular Master Regulator Landscape Controls Cancer Transcriptional Identity (Zheng Lab)

January 21, 2021

Evan O.Paull114,  Alvaro Aytes121314,  Sunny J.Jones114,  Prem S.Subramaniam1,  Federico M.Giorgi3,  Eugene F.Douglass1,  Somnath Tagore1,  Brennan Chu1,  Alessandro Vasciaveo1,  Siyuan Zheng4,  Roel Verhaak5,  Cory Abate-Shen1678,  Mariano J.Alvarez19,  Andrea Califano16910111215 Summary Despite considerable efforts, the mechanisms linking genomic alterations to the transcriptional identity of cancer cells remain elusive. Integrative genomic analysis, using a network-based approach, identified 407 […]

Nature Communications: Integrated analysis of telomerase enzymatic activity unravels an association with cancer stemness and proliferation (Zheng Lab)

January 12, 2021

        Nighat Noureen, Shaofang Wu, Yingli Lv, Juechen Yang, W. K. Alfred Yung, Jonathan Gelfond, Xiaojing Wang, Dimpy Koul, Andrew Ludlow & Siyuan Zheng Abstract Active telomerase is essential for stem cells and most cancers to maintain telomeres. The enzymatic activity of telomerase is related but not equivalent to the expression of TERT, the catalytic subunit of the complex. Here we […]

Nucleic Acids Research: “PCAT: an Integrated Portal for Genomic and Preclinical Testing Data of Pediatric Cancer Patient-Derived Xenograft Models” in Oxford Academic (multiple faculty and researchers)

September 8, 2020

Juechen Yang, Qilin Li, Nighat Noureen (Greehey CCRI, Zheng Lab), Yanbing Fang, Raushan Kurmasheva (Greehey CCRI, Kurmasheva Lab), Peter J Houghton (Greehey CCRI, Houghton Lab), Xiaojing Wang (Greehey CCRI, Wang Lab), Siyuan Zheng (Greehey CCRI, Zheng Lab) Nucleic Acids Research, gkaa698, https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaa698 Published:  18 August 2020 Abstract Although cancer is the leading cause of disease-related mortality in […]

Physician’s Weekly: PCAT: an integrated portal for genomic and preclinical testing data of pediatric cancer patient-derived xenograft models.

August 20, 2020

Although cancer is the leading cause of disease-related mortality in children, the relative rarity of pediatric cancers poses a significant challenge for developing novel therapeutics to further improve prognosis. Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models, which are usually developed from high-risk tumors, are a useful platform to study molecular driver events, identify biomarkers and prioritize therapeutic agents.

Nature Communications: Murine models of IDH-wild-type glioblastoma exhibit spatial segregation of tumor initiation and manifestation during evolution (Zheng)

July 22, 2020

Yinghua Li 1 2 3, Bo Li 4, Wei Li 5, Yuan Wang 1 2 3, Seçkin Akgül 1 2 3 6 7, Daniel M Treisman 1 2 3 6, Kevin A Heist 8, Brianna R Pierce 1 2 3, Benjamin Hoff 8, Cheng-Ying Ho 5, David O Ferguson 9, Alnawaz Rehemtulla 10, Siyuan Zheng 11, Brian D Ross 8, Jun Z Li 4, Yuan Zhu 12 13 14 15 16 Abstract Recent characterization of the spatiotemporal genomic architecture of IDH-wild-type multifocal glioblastomas (M-GBMs) suggests a clinically unobserved common ancestor (CA) with a less aggressive phenotype, generating highly genetically divergent malignant gliomas/GBMs in […]

Oncotarget: Development and characterization of the novel human osteosarcoma cell line COS-33 with sustained activation of the mTOR pathway

July 7, 2020

Ashley VanCleave 1, Mykayla Palmer 1 2, Fang Fang 1, Haydee Torres 1 3, Tania Rodezno 1, Qilin Li 4, Kirby Fuglsby 1 5, Claire Evans 1, Yohannes Afeworki 6, Alan Ross 7, Pulivarthi Rao 8, Patricia Leiferman 9 10, Siyuan Zheng 4, Peter Houghton 4, Jianning Tao 1 3 5 10 Abstract Outcomes have not improved for metastatic osteosarcoma for several decades. In part, this failure to develop better therapies stems from a lack of understanding of osteosarcoma biology, given the rarity of the disease and the high genetic heterogeneity […]