Liling Wan, Ph.D.

Research

The Wan lab will investigate how assemblies of proteins come together to regulate the expression of genes and how dysregulation of this process contributes to cancer development. For a gene to be expressed, myriad factors must congregate in a highly coordinated manner, but how this is achieved is not fully understood. We recently discovered that a series of genetic mutations found in Wilms tumor, a form of kidney cancer, allow protein assemblies to aberrantly form and activate genes that permit cancer cells to thrive. Combining approaches in biochemistry, genomics, and single-cell imaging, my lab seeks to unravel how these assemblies form, the network of genes that they impact, and the extent of their dysregulation in cancer. In addition, we are also looking to expand the study of similar protein assemblies into other disease areas, and ways they could be therapeutically targeted.