Wu-Min Deng, PhD

Tumor initiation, evolution, host response and sex-dimorphic regulation

 

The research in Dr. Deng’s laboratory bridges cancer biology, genetics, bioinformatics and developmental biology. Using the genetically tractable Drosophila model, we seek to understand how cell growth, proliferation and polarity are regulated during development, and how their deregulation may result in uncontrolled growth, loss of tissue integrity, and neoplastic tumor transformation in a sex dimorphic fashion. Currently, we focus on the following research projects: (1) Characterization of “tumor hotspots”, the tissue microenvironment for tumorigenesis; (2) Sex dimorphism in tumor growth, progression and evolution; (3) Tissue homeostasis through cell competition, phagaptosis, and compensatory cellular hypertrophy; (4) Cachexia, innate immunity and metabolic regulation in tumor-host interactions.