Zhi Sheng

Synopsis:

Dr. Zhi Sheng's laboratory focuses on understanding how cancer cells and cancer stem cells survive and attempts to identify new cancer vulnerabilities to develop precision treatments for cancer.

Description:

Research from Dr. Sheng's laboratory focuses on precision oncology. Certain advanced cancer such as glioblastoma remains incurable, with little to no effective treatments, his team is inspired to combat advanced cancers through conducting basic and translational research with a specific focus on developing new and effective precision therapies. To this end, Dr. Sheng's lab has employed complementary tools including (1) bioinformatic analysis of cancer survival genes using publicly available databases (i.e. TCGA database, Achilles’ Project of cancer survival genes, The Human Protein Atlas, etc.) to identify new biomarkers and therapeutic targets, (2) genome-wide RNA interference screens to identify novel cancer vulnerabilities, and (3) patient-derived xenograt mouse models to evaluate the therapeutic potential of drug targets. To tease apart the molecular basis for these unprecedented vulnerabilities, the lab is also exploiting a variety of cellular, biochemical, and structural biology approaches such as 3D organoids, super-resolution imaging, live cell imaging, light sheet microscopy, and cryo-electron microscopy. By using these cutting-edge techniques, the lab is poised to (1) unveil structural difference among homologous signaling molecules in glioblastoma and explore how to utilize this difference to develop precision medicine, (2) identify new factors that are important for glioblastoma stem cells and develop targeted or combinational therapies to eliminate glioblastoma stem cells, and (3) reveal molecular mechanisms underlying long non-coding RNA-mediated autophagy that induces drug resistance and determine the therapeutic potential of targeting long non-coding RNA in treating cancer.