The Wang Lab

Dr. Haizhen (Jen) Wang’s Research Interests:

My overall research interests are to understand critical molecular mechanisms of cancer initiation/progression, and to translate these mechanisms into cancer therapy. The focus of my laboratory is to elucidate the functional roles of cyclin/CDK and metabolic proteins in both cancer cells and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs).

Current Project:

CDK6 in regulating leukemia infiltration and relapse
The most common cause of treatment failure in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) remains relapse. Infiltration is a critical step for extramedullary relapse. It is extremely important to understand the largely unknown infiltration mechanism in order to develop novel therapies with high efficacy for both newly diagnosed and relapsed T-ALL. Cyclin D3/CDK6 is the major cyclin D/CDK in T-ALL, and the CDK6 kinase activity in T-ALL is enhanced as its inhibitors, CDKN2A/2B, are mutated in over 50% of T-ALL cases. Targeting CDK6 for T-ALL therapy is very promising as it prevents leukemia cell proliferation and induces apoptosis. It is not clear whether or how CDK6 regulates T-ALL infiltration. We will elucidate novel regulatory mechanisms of cyclin D3/CDK6 in T-ALL infiltration.

Consider donating to cancer research @: https://lowvelo.org/donate/checkout?rider=344

Contact us:
Department of Cell and Molecular Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics
Medical University of South Carolina
173 Ashley Avenue, BSB 315B
Charleston, SC 29425
Phone: 843-792-2669
E-mail: wangha@musc.edu

Selected publications:
1, Haizhen Wang, Brandon N. Nicolay, Joel M. Chick, Xueliang Gao, Yan Geng, Hong Ren, Hui Gao, Guizhi Yang, Juliet A. Williams, Jan M. Suski, Mark A. Keibler, Ewa Sicinska, Ulrike Gerdemann, W. Nicholas Haining, Thomas M. Roberts, Kornelia Polyak, Steven P. Gygi, Nicholas J. Dyson and Piotr Sicinski. The metabolic function of cyclin D3-CDK6 kinase in cancer cell survival. Nature. 2017, 546: 426- 430.

2, Jinfang Zhang*, Xia Bu*, Haizhen Wang*, Yasheng Zhu, Yan Geng, Naoe Taira Nihira, Yuyong Tan, Yanpeng Ci, Fei Wu, Xiangpeng Dai, Jianping Guo, Yuhan Huang, Caoqi Fan, Shancheng Ren, Yinghao Sun, Gordon J.Freeman, Piotr Sicinski and Wenyi Wei. Cyclin D/CDK4 kinase destabilizes PD-L1 via Cullin 3-SPOP to control cancer immune surveillance. Nature. 2018, 553: 91–95. (*These authors contributed equally.)

3, Haizhen Wang*, Xueliang Gao*, Jenny J. Yang and Zhi-Ren Liu. Interaction between p68 RNA helicase and Ca2+-calmodulin promotes cell migration and metastasis. Nature Communications. 2013, 4:1354. (*These authors contribute equally.)

Complete List of Published Work in My Bibliography

Current funding:
South Carolina COBRE in oxidants, redox balance and stress signaling   5P20GM103542-08   Role: Investigator   9/1/2019 to 8/31/21