My research interests are overall in understanding how cancers including cancer of pancreas, through secretion of factors interacting with the tumor microenvironment and the host organs, induce cachexia, a systemic metabolic syndrome involving characteristic muscle wasting. Because cachexia significantly contributes to cancer treatment failure and cancer deaths, it is my goal to identify the mechanism-based therapeutic targets that can be manipulated to overcome this obstacle to cancer eradication in human patients with cancer. My recent work in Dr. Zimmers Lab using the genetically engineered KPC mouse model of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) demonstrate that cachexia onset/severity and alterations in transcriptome/proteome as well as anti-cachectic Activin therapeutic effects are sex dependent. Analysis of PDAC patients treated with chemotherapy at our institution also show sex difference in muscle wasting. It is understandable that sex differences exist in diseases including cancer and cancer cachexia because men and women are biologically different, rendering them susceptible to pathological conditions or responsive to therapies differently. However, research using both sexes is still not being routinely considered, with males being dominantly used. Thus, our work highlights the necessity of using both sexes in order to develop sex-specific tailored therapeutics. My future research interests will be in testing the anti-cachexia in combination with anti-cancer therapeutic potential targeting sex-specific as well as sex-common key molecular alterations identified in our own studies and published work by others, in addition to exploring the mechanisms underlying sex differences and identifying new molecular targets.
M.D. - Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China 08/1983
Ph.D. - Toho University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan 05/2001
Post-doctoral Fellowship - Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 04/2005
