Research

The Luo Lab studies epigenetic and metabolic alterations through crosstalk with hypoxia in cancer development with the goal of identifying vulnerability to treat human cancers, particularly breast cancer, kidney cancer, and glioblastoma. We utilize in vitro and in vivo models including genetic mouse models, patient-derived xenograft models, and organoid models in our studies. Currently, our research is supported by grants from NCI, DoD, CPRIT, and ACS.

Research Overview

    We are actively conducting the following projects in the lab.

    1. The molecular mechanisms underlying HIF activation. Please refer to our recent publications for details (Chen Y. et al., J Clin Invest. 2018Bao L, et al., Nucleic Acids Res 2018; Wang Y. et al., Cancer Res 2020).

    2. HIF-induced non-coding RNA landscape. Please refer to our recent publications for details (Niu Y. et al., Cancer Res 2020; Chen L, Bao L, et al., Mol Cancer Res 2021)

    3. HIF-dependent cancer treatment.

    We are interested in identification of epigenetic regulators responsible for breast cancer stemness and immune evasion, and their underlying mechanisms. Please refer to our recent publications for details (Luo M, et al., Sci Adv. 2022; Wang Y, Luo M, et al., Cancer Res 2021).

    We are actively investigating how BCAA metabolism is regulated in cancers and BCAA-dependency in cancers. Please refer to our recent publications for details (Zhang B, Chen Y, et al. Cell Mol Life Sci 2021; Peng H et al. Oncogene 2020; Zhang B, Peng H, et al., Cancer Res 2022).

    We are interested in epigenetic and metabolic mechanisms of resistance to cancer therapies.