Very happy to see our work on FSTL1+ CAFs in driving HCC stemness and metastasis finally published in the most recent issue of Cancer Research. Also out is our recently published and related mini-review article on the role of CAFs in the maintenance of stemness in the tumor microenviornment. Very well done, JJ, Carol, Natalie, and the team. We also thank our collaborators for their support.
Read the Cancer Research and Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology articles here.
Stepped out of our comfort zone and explored into lineage tracing and scRNA-seq. Years of hard work with great preserverance from our three leading authors Lena, Ken and Eric; and a wonderful collaboration with Dr. Joshua Ho. Excited to share our lab’s latest work published in Gut.
Lineage tracing and single-cell analysis reveal proliferative Prom1+ tumor-propagating cells and their dynamic cellular transition during liver cancer progression – read all about it here!
Stephanie gave a virtual talk on “Cancer stem cell niche in hepatocellular carcinoma” at the monthly Lowy Cancer Seminar Series, Lowy Cancer Research Centre at the University of South Wales in Sydney on September 29, 2021. Thank you for the invitation. Hope there are opportunites to collaborate in the future! Details of the seminar series can be found here.
Congrats to Lena on her paper in Gut (more details to follow) … and thank you for your contribution to our lab. Your dedication to research is admirable. All the best to you in your new adventures. Hope we can continue to work together as collaborators in the future!
Congrats to Jane on her PhD! All the best in your new endeavor at the Francis Crick Institute!
It’s finally out! Check out our review in Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology detailing the most updated knowledge of liver cancer stem cell biology. Thanks to the authors involved. Truly a pleasure to be able to work with NatRevGastroHep. Read here.
Happy to share our lab’s latest work published in the Aug 24 2021 issue of Cell Reports. Loss of tyrosine catabolic enzyme HPD promotes glutamine anaplerosis through mTOR signaling in liver cancer. Great work by Carol with collaborations from Zongwei Cai’s group of Baptist University in Hong Kong. Open access here.
August 2021 – A very warm welcome to all the new members of the team. This includes our not so new postdocs Ianto, Sara and Gao (sorry for the late update), PhD students Sheree, Huanwen and Venus as well as our MRes(Med) student Justin! And congratulations to Eric on his recent promotion to RAP! 
Happy to have the opportunity to participate in the 10th International Workshop on Cancer Systems Biology (ICSB2021) hosted by Jilin University from July 31 to August 1, 2021. The workshop gathered 20 chinese academics working in different parts of the world. I was told the presentations attracted over 10,000 audience on various social platforms. The power of virtual conferences!
Stephanie shared the team’s latest work on liver cancer stem cell niche at the FASEB The Liver Biology Conference: Fundamental Mechanisms and Translational Applications held virtually on June 16-17, 2021. Huge thanks to organizers Stacey Huppert, Gen-Sheng Feng, Lijian Hui and Lars Zender for putting a great program together and also for the invitation to speak. The abstract submitted by Carol, RAP in the lab, was also selected for a flash talk at 5AM in the morning đŸ™‚ It was great seeing old friends again at the meeting.
Conference agenda can be found here. 
SMA Lab 