Qin Yan, PhD
Research & Publications
Biography
News
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Research Summary
Epigenetic aberrations often lead to cancer and other human diseases. The long-term goals of our laboratory are to elucidate the roles of epigenetic regulation in cancer initiation and progression and to translate our findings to the clinic. In particular, we focus on the epigenetic regulators of cancer metastasis, immune evasion and resistance to anticancer drugs in breast cancer and melanoma. We are currently studying epigenetic regulators including KDM5 demethylases and bromodomain protein CECR2 contribute to cancer initiation and progression using biochemical, molecular biological, cell biological and mouse genetic approaches. As these epigenetic regulators are potential drug targets, we are developing small molecule inhibitors and degraders against these regulators for cancer treatment.
Specialized Terms: Epigenetics; Gene regulation; Cancer biology
Coauthors
Research Interests
Gene Expression Regulation; Immunotherapy; Melanoma; Neoplasm Metastasis; Retroelements; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; Jumonji Domain-Containing Histone Demethylases; Epigenomics; Epigenetic Repression
Public Health Interests
Cancer
Selected Publications
- Human WDR5 promotes breast cancer growth and metastasis via KMT2-independent translation regulationCai WL, Chen JF, Chen H, Wingrove E, Kurley SJ, Chan LH, Zhang M, Arnal-Estape A, Zhao M, Balabaki A, Li W, Yu X, Krop ED, Dou Y, Liu Y, Jin J, Westbrook TF, Nguyen DX, Yan Q. Human WDR5 promotes breast cancer growth and metastasis via KMT2-independent translation regulation ELife 2022, 11: e78163. PMID: 36043466, PMCID: PMC9584608, DOI: 10.7554/elife.78163.
- CECR2 drives breast cancer metastasis by promoting NF-κB signaling and macrophage-mediated immune suppressionZhang M, Liu ZZ, Aoshima K, Cai WL, Sun H, Xu T, Zhang Y, An Y, Chen JF, Chan LH, Aoshima A, Lang SM, Tang Z, Che X, Li Y, Rutter SJ, Bossuyt V, Chen X, Morrow JS, Pusztai L, Rimm DL, Yin M, Yan Q. CECR2 drives breast cancer metastasis by promoting NF-κB signaling and macrophage-mediated immune suppression Science Translational Medicine 2022, 14: eabf5473. PMID: 35108062, PMCID: PMC9003667, DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abf5473.
- KDM5B promotes immune evasion by recruiting SETDB1 to silence retroelementsZhang SM, Cai WL, Liu X, Thakral D, Luo J, Chan LH, McGeary MK, Song E, Blenman KRM, Micevic G, Jessel S, Zhang Y, Yin M, Booth CJ, Jilaveanu LB, Damsky W, Sznol M, Kluger HM, Iwasaki A, Bosenberg MW, Yan Q. KDM5B promotes immune evasion by recruiting SETDB1 to silence retroelements Nature 2021, 598: 682-687. PMID: 34671158, PMCID: PMC8555464, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03994-2.
- Potent BRD4 inhibitor suppresses cancer cell-macrophage interactionYin M, Guo Y, Hu R, Cai WL, Li Y, Pei S, Sun H, Peng C, Li J, Ye R, Yang Q, Wang N, Tao Y, Chen X, Yan Q. Potent BRD4 inhibitor suppresses cancer cell-macrophage interaction Nature Communications 2020, 11: 1833. PMID: 32286255, PMCID: PMC7156724, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15290-0.
- KDM5 histone demethylases repress immune response via suppression of STINGWu L, Cao J, Cai WL, Lang SM, Horton JR, Jansen DJ, Liu ZZ, Chen JF, Zhang M, Mott BT, Pohida K, Rai G, Kales SC, Henderson MJ, Hu X, Jadhav A, Maloney DJ, Simeonov A, Zhu S, Iwasaki A, Hall MD, Cheng X, Shadel GS, Yan Q. KDM5 histone demethylases repress immune response via suppression of STING PLOS Biology 2018, 16: e2006134. PMID: 30080846, PMCID: PMC6095604, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2006134.
- The crossroads of cancer epigenetics and immune checkpoint therapy.Micevic G, Bosenberg M, Yan Q. The crossroads of cancer epigenetics and immune checkpoint therapy. Clinical Cancer Research 2022, of1-of10. PMID: 36449280, DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-22-0784.
- Genome-wide CRISPR screen reveals host genes that regulate SARS-CoV-2 infection.Wei J, Alfajaro MM, Hanna RE, DeWeirdt PC, Strine MS, Lu-Culligan WJ, Zhang SM, Graziano VR, Schmitz CO, Chen JS, Mankowski MC, Filler RB, Gasque V, de Miguel F, Chen H, Oguntuyo K, Abriola L, Surovtseva YV, Orchard RC, Lee B, Lindenbach B, Politi K, van Dijk D, Simon MD, Yan Q, Doench JG, Wilen CB. Genome-wide CRISPR screen reveals host genes that regulate SARS-CoV-2 infection. BioRxiv : The Preprint Server For Biology 2020 PMID: 32869025, PMCID: PMC7457610, DOI: 10.1101/2020.06.16.155101.
- Cancer Epigenetics, Tumor Immunity, and ImmunotherapyCao J, Yan Q. Cancer Epigenetics, Tumor Immunity, and Immunotherapy Trends In Cancer 2020, 6: 580-592. PMID: 32610068, PMCID: PMC7330177, DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2020.02.003.
- Histone H3 proline 16 hydroxylation regulates mammalian gene expressionLiu X, Wang J, Boyer J, Gong W, Zhao S, Xie L, Wu Q, Zhang C, Jain K, Guo Y, Rodriguez J, Li M, Uryu H, Liao C, Hu L, Zhou J, Shi X, Tsai Y, Yan Q, Luo W, Chen X, Strahl B, von Kriegsheim A, Zhang Q, Wang G, Baldwin A, Zhang Q. Histone H3 proline 16 hydroxylation regulates mammalian gene expression Nature Genetics 2022, 54: 1721-1735. PMID: 36347944, PMCID: PMC9674084, DOI: 10.1038/s41588-022-01212-x.