Yanan Yang

My long-term interest is to understand better the role for EMT and associated pathways, e.g. TGF-β and Notch pathways, in the regulation of fibrosis and cancer development and progression. As previously a member of the Mayo Clinic Medical Scientist Training Program Faculty and currently the Chair of the Immunology Department of Anhui Medical University, I have formally mentored 4 junior faculty members, 4 research fellows, 2 research technologists, 4 graduate students, 2 undergraduate students, and 1 high school student over the past decade. Current projects in my lab utilizes genetically engineered models to investigate how tumor microenvironment affects cellular pathways to reprogram the metabolic processes (e.g. lipid metabolism and protein degradation) in cancer cells, thereby regulating cancer initiation, progression, metastasis, and resistance to targeted therapies. Some of our major accomplishments are: 1. Identified mechanisms by which TGFβ concomitantly regulates apoptosis and EMT; 2. Generated transgenic/conditional knockout mouse models of mutant Kras-driven lung adenocarcinomas (KRASG12D; PTENf/f; CCSPcre; and KRASG12D; MKK4f/f; CCSPcre; and KRASG12D; PDK1h/h); 3. Generated a new transgenic/knockout mouse model of spontaneous lung adenocarcinoma metastasis (KRASG12D; CDKN1A-/-); 4. Characterized the role of PI3K in mutant Kras-driven lung tumorigenesis and the proliferation of putative lung tumor progenitor cells; 5. Characterized the role of JAG2 in lung adenocarcinoma metastasis; 6. Provided preclinical evidence that spawned clinical trials at MD Anderson Cancer Center testing the efficacy of a ɣ-secretase inhibitor in the treatment of lung cancer patients; 7. Identified downstream mediators of ZEB1 that promote Kras mutant lung adenocarcinoma metastasis; 8. Discovered a new EMT-independent role for ZEB1 as a growth suppressor in EGFR mutant lung cancer 9. Characterized the mechanism by which autophagy regulates NOTCH1 signaling