My research has been focused on identification of cancer signaling pathway for development of pathway targeted new anticancer drugs. My initial work has delineated the apoptotic pathway of TRAIL (tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis ligand) in cancers and demonstrated that protein ubiquitination regulates TRAIL-induced signaling pathway in cancers. Recently, we have identified the protein posttranslational modification pathway of small ubiquitin-like modifier-1 (SUMO1) in cancer and shown that SUMO1 conjugation of cyclin-dependent kinase-6 (CDK6) blocks CDK6 ubiquitination and degradation, thereby stabilizes the protein kinase activity and drive the cell cycle and cancer progression. To target this pathway, we have designed cancer cell-based drug screening and identified the lead small molecule SUMO1 inhibitor we named as SUMO1 inhibition compound (SMIC1). SMIC1 treatment suppresses the progression of cancer cell lines and patient derived cancer xenografts. CRISPR-CAS9 genome wide screening has identified SMIC1 targeted ubiquitination pathway for SUMO1 protein degradation. Our current effort focuses on development of SMIC1 as a new class of anticancer drugs through medicinal chemistry to improve the potency and drug-like features of the lead SMIC1. In addition, we are taking a similar approach in cancer cell based drug screening to identify small molecules as new anticancer drugs that can activate ubiquitination and degradation of key onco-proteins.
FRCPC - University of Western Ontario, London, Canada 1997
Ph.D. - University of Saskatchewasn, Saskatoon, Canada 1991
M.Sc. - Norman Bethune University of Medical Sciences, Changchun, China 1985
M.D. - Jilin Medical Colleger, Jilin City, China 1982
