Office: 210-567-5746
Email: sunl@uthscsa.edu
Our laboratory studies molecular mechanisms that regulate carcinogenesis and cancer cell growth, invasion, and metastasis using molecular and cellular biology techniques and animal model systems. One of the molecules we are currently studying is called transforming growth factor beta (TGF beta). This growth factor has been shown to inhibit tumorigenesis and growth of some early-stage adenocarcinoma cells, yet promote growth and metastasis in late-stage carcinoma cells. We are trying to understand why a given polypeptide growth factor has such opposing effects and to devise the means that can enhance its tumor-suppressing activity while antagonizing its tumor-promoting activity. We are particularly interested in determining whether TGF beta agonists can suppress TGF beta-promoted tumor progression.
Other projects in the laboratory include the role of estrogen and androgen signaling in promoting tumorigenesis and progression in the mammary gland and prostate gland, respectively. Our approaches to study regulation of gene expression include transcriptional and posttranscriptional analyses with techniques such as gene microarray, promoter activity measurements, chromosome immunoprecipitation, polymerase chain reaction, quantitative real-time RT-PCR, receptor cross-linking, immunoprecipitation and Western blotting analyses. To study gene functions, we use sense transfection, RNA interference, and retroviral transduction techniques to regulate gene expression and study the effects of altered gene expression on malignant phenotypes of cancer cells in tissue culture and in mice.
Professional Society Memberships
American Association for Cancer Research
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Selected Publications
Bandyopadhyay, A., Long Wang, Shiau Hui Chin and Lu-Zhe Sun. Inhibition of skeletal metastasis by ectopic ERα expression in ERα negative human breast cancer cell lines. Neoplasia 9:113-118, 2007.
Lei, X-F., J. Yang, R. Nichols, L-Z. Sun. Abrogation of autocrine TGFβ signaling induces apoptosis through the modulation of MAP kinase pathways in breast cancer cells. Exp. Cell Res. 313:1687-1695, 2007.
Verona, Erik V., Abdel Elkahloun, Junhua Yang, Abhik Bandyopadhyay, I-Tien Yeh, and Lu-Zhe Sun. TGFβ signaling in prostate stromal cells supports prostate carcinoma growth by upregulating stromal genes related to tissue remodeling. Cancer Res. 67:5737-5746, 2007.
Bandyopadhyay, A., Joseph K. Agyin, Long Wang, Yuping Tang, Xiufen Lei, Beryl M. Story, John E. Cornell, Brdley H. Pollock, Gregory R. Mundy, and L.-Z. Sun. Inhibition of pulmonary and skeletal metastasis by a TGFβ Type I receptor kinase inhibitor. Cancer Res. 66:6714-6721, 2006.
