Feb 21 2020 – Life goes on amid the COVID-19 epidemic. The team gathered for a very belated birthday celebration for Lena. We also welcome the newest members of our team Yunong, Sarah and Terry. Happy Birthday and Welcome!
News
Annual Christmas Gathering
Dec 18 2019 @ Hong Kong – Annual Christmas Gathering. Thankful 🙂
CSH Asia 2019 Liver, Biology, Diseases and Cancer
Dec 9 to 12 2019 @ Awaji, Japan – Shared, learned, met new and caught up with old friends at the Cold Spring Harbor Asia 2019 Conference on Liver, Biology, Diseases and Cancer held in Awaji, Japan this year.
Jane sharing her latest research findings at the poster session.
HKU-CUHK-GIBH-MPI Joint Symposium in Germany
Nov 4-6 2019 @ Bad Nauheim, Germany – Stephanie gave a talk at the HKU-CUHK-GIBH-MPI Joint Symposium – New Frontiers in Stem Cell Biology at Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research.
World Laureates Forum in Shanghai
Oct 28-31 2019 @ Shanghai, China – Blessed to have the opportunity to participate in the World Laureates Association 2nd Annual Forum this year. Such an eye opening experience to be in the same room with 44 Nobel Laureates at the same time.
Congrats to Steve on his Hepatology paper!
Read all about Steve’s REX1 story in the upcoming issue of Hepatology. In brief, the work describes a critical repressive function of REX1 in maintenance of HCC cells by regulating MKK6 binding and p38 MAPK signaling. REX1 deficiency induced enhancement of p38 MAPK signaling, leading to F-actin reorganization and activation of NRF2-mediated oxidative stress response, which collectively contributed to enhanced stemness and metastatic capabilites of HCC cells.
Luk ST, Ng KY, Zhou L, Tong M, Wong TL, Yu HJ, Lo CM, Man K, Guan XY, Lee TK, Ma S. Deficiency in embryonic stem cell marker REX1 activates MKK6-dependent p38 MAPK signaling to drive hepatocarcinogenesis. Hepatology 2019; accepted
Team Gathering
The team gathered for a nice all you can eat Japanese buffet to welcome our new PDF Chris and to bid farewell to our visiting student Huajian. Thank you Huajian for your hard work and contribution to the lab in the past year. We look forward to welcoming you back soon 🙂
Proud to be part of HKU
Read about our research work on cancer stem cells – the roots of cancer. Thank you for the feature. Proud to be part of HKU 🙂 and one of the many women in science 🙂 🙂
Another paper in Hepatology!
Our joint publication with Dr Terence Lee’s team is accepted for publication in Hepatology. Congrats to Carmen, Carol and the team!
In brief, our work found SHP2 blockade by SHP099 in combination with sorafenib attenuated the adaptive resistance to sorafenib by impeding RTK-induced reactivation of the MEK/ERK and AKT signalling pathways. SHP099 in combination with sorafenib may represent a novel and safe therapeutic strategy against HCC.
Leung CO*, Tong M*, Chung KP, Zhou L, Che N, Tang KH, Ding J, Lau EY, Ng IO, Ma S^, Lee TK^. Overriding adaptive resistance to sorafenib via combination therapy with SHP2 blockade in hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatology 2019; Epub ahead of print. *co-first authors ^co-corresponding authors
Our new paper in Hepatology
Congrats to Eric and the team on our latest paper published in Hepatology!
Our findings indicate that the PRMT6-ERK-PKM2 regulatory axis is an important determinant of the Warburg effect in HCC, and provide a mechanistic link among tumorigenicity, sorafenib resistance and glucose metabolism.
Wong TL, Ng KY, Tan KV, Chan LH, Zhou L, Che N, Hoo RL, Lee TK, Richard S, Lo CM, Man K, Khong PL, Ma S. CRAF methylation by PRMT6 regulates aerobic glycolysis-driven hepatocarcinogenesis via ERK-dependent PKM2 nuclear relocalization and activation. Hepatology 2019; Epub ahead of print.
