Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics and Pharmacology
(PhD – University of California, San Diego)
ACCEPTING STUDENTS
HONORS & AWARDS
- 2022 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Young Investigator Award
- 2019 Yang Family Biomedical Scholars Award, UNC
- 2019 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Scholarly and Artistic Achievement, UNC
- 2018 Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) Scholar
- 2017 Gilead Sciences Research Scholar, Gilead Inc. Scholars Program
- 2016 American Cancer Society (ACS) Scholar
- 2014-2015 Kimmel Scholar Award, Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research
- 2014-2016 Janet D. Rowley Medical Research Award, Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research
- 2014 CONquer canCER Now! (Concern) Foundation Junior Faculty Award
- 2014 Career Development Award, Department of Defense (DoD) & USA Army
- 2014 Kimmel Scholar Award
- 2013-2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Scholar Award in Basic Science
- 2013 Jefferson Pilot Fellowships in Academic Medicine Award, UNC Medical School
- 2011-2012 Martin D. Abeloff, MD V Scholar (top rating), the V Foundation for Cancer Research
- 2010-2015 Howard Temin ‘Pathway to Independence’ Award in Cancer Research (K99/R00), NIH/NCI
- 2008 Irvington Institute – Cancer Research Institute postdoctoral fellowship (declined)
- 2008-2010 Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) Fellow Award (named as the John C. Newman Researcher of LLS)
- 2007 C. H. Li Memorial Scholar Fund Scholar Award, the Rockefeller University
- 2000 Union Medical Award, Fudan University Medical Center, China
- 1994-1996 Undergraduate merit-based scholarship (People’s Fellowship), Fudan University, China
RESEARCH SUMMARY
Our research interests focus broadly on the role for chromatin modification and epigenetic mechanism in gene regulation, development and disease, notably cancer. Our recent works in this broad field have shown that dysregulation of enzymes and effectors involved in histone and DNA methylation causally leads to gene expression deregulation and cancer development. We favor a general view that human disease including cancer often arises from dysregulation of an “epigenetic language” embedded in the genome, when it is mis-written, mis-erased or mis-interpreted. Currently, our laboratory employs cutting-edge techniques, which include CRISPR/cas9-based genomic editing, deep sequencing and small-molecule epigenetic inhibitors, to address issues relating to fundamentals of epigenetics and cancer therapeutics. Multiple on-going projects are (1) biochemical characterization of novel factors/complexes that read chromatin modification; (2) CRISPR/dCas9-based editing of epigenomic modifications for understanding their roles in gene function; (3) knockout and knock-in mouse models with deficiency in chromatin regulators in context of development and tumorigenesis; (4) epigenomic and transcriptome analyses (ChIP-Seq and RNA-Seq) of normal versus cancer cells to delineate pathways essential for tumor growth.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
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Ahn JH, Davis ES, Daugird TA, Zhao S, Quiroga IY, Uryu H, Li J, Storey AJ, Tsai YH, Keeley DP, Mackintosh SG, Edmondson RD, Byrum SD, Cai L, Tackett AJ, Zheng D, Legant WR, Phanstiel DH, Wang GG. Phase separation drives aberrant chromatin looping and cancer development. Nature. 2021 Jul;595(7868):591-595. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03662-5. Epub 2021 Jun 23. PubMed PMID: 34163069.
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Zhao S, Allis CD, Wang GG. The language of chromatin modification in human cancers. Nat Rev Cancer. 2021 Jul;21(7):413-430. doi: 10.1038/s41568-021-00357-x. Epub 2021 May 17. Review. PubMed PMID: 34002060.
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Li J, Galbo PM Jr, Gong W, Storey AJ, Tsai YH, Yu X, Ahn JH, Guo Y, Mackintosh SG, Edmondson RD, Byrum SD, Farrar JE, He S, Cai L, Jin J, Tackett AJ, Zheng D, Wang GG. ZMYND11-MBTD1 induces leukemogenesis through hijacking NuA4/TIP60 acetyltransferase complex and a PWWP-mediated chromatin association mechanism. Nat Commun. 2021 Feb 16;12(1):1045. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21357-3. PubMed PMID: 33594072; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7886901.
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Fan H, Lu J, Guo Y, Li D, Zhang ZM, Tsai YH, Pi WC, Ahn JH, Gong W, Xiang Y, Allison DF, Geng H, He S, Diao Y, Chen WY, Strahl BD, Cai L, Song J, Wang GG. BAHCC1 binds H3K27me3 via a conserved BAH module to mediate gene silencing and oncogenesis. Nat Genet. 2020 Dec;52(12):1384-1396. doi: 10.1038/s41588-020-00729-3. Epub 2020 Nov 2. PubMed PMID: 33139953; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8330957.
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Cai L, Tsai YH, Wang P, Wang J, Li D, Fan H, Zhao Y, Bareja R, Lu R, Wilson EM, Sboner A, Whang YE, Zheng D, Parker JS, Earp HS, Wang GG. ZFX Mediates Non-canonical Oncogenic Functions of the Androgen Receptor Splice Variant 7 in Castrate-Resistant Prostate Cancer. Mol Cell. 2018 Oct 18;72(2):341-354.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2018.08.029. Epub 2018 Sep 27. PubMed PMID: 30270106; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6214474.
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Zhang ZM, Lu R, Wang P, Yu Y, Chen D, Gao L, Liu S, Ji D, Rothbart SB, Wang Y, Wang GG, Song J. Structural basis for DNMT3A-mediated de novo DNA methylation. Nature. 2018 Feb 15;554(7692):387-391. doi: 10.1038/nature25477. Epub 2018 Feb 7. PubMed PMID: 29414941; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5814352.
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Lu R, Wang P, Parton T, Zhou Y, Chrysovergis K, Rockowitz S, Chen WY, Abdel-Wahab O, Wade PA, Zheng D, Wang GG. Epigenetic Perturbations by Arg882-Mutated DNMT3A Potentiate Aberrant Stem Cell Gene-Expression Program and Acute Leukemia Development. Cancer Cell. 2016 Jul 11;30(1):92-107. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2016.05.008. Epub 2016 Jun 23. PubMed PMID: 27344947; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4945461.
