Welcome!
Our lab is currently in the process of relocating to Houston Methodist Research Institute in Houston, Texas
Congratulations to Dr. Keith Syson Chan!
Dr. Chan received the Established Investigator Recruitment Grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). He will be joining Houston Methodist Research Institute as the Director of Translational Research in the Department of Urology and Program Lead of Innovative Therapeutics in the Dr. Mary and Ron Neal Cancer Center. (see below for article)
Research
Primary Areas of Interests
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Non-classical mechanisms driving therapeutic resistance
Most cancer therapies designate cancer cell death as the therapeutic end goal. Intriguingly, our study reveals that cell death-associated release of PGE2 functions as a mitogen, which recruits quiescent cancer stem cells (CSCs) to repopulate residual tumors [Nature 517, 209–213 (2015)]. PGE2 also acts as an inhibitory DAMP (iDAMP) to dampen dendritic cell activation, and thus T cell priming [Nature Communications 11, 6299 (2020)]. Our most recent study revealed “iDAMP blockade” can convert immune-excluded tumors into inflamed tumors and sensitize them to chemoimmunotherapy [Nature Communications 13, 1487 (2022)]. Studies are underway to translate these concepts into early-phase clinical trials. And to further characterize the immunosuppressive immune and stromal TME [Nature Reviews Urology 19, 515-533 (2022)].
