About Cancer Biology

The Cancer Biology Department is the home of a dynamic, collaborative and highly interactive faculty with cutting-edge research programs that span a wide range of cancer-related topics.

Every new discovery and success in our laboratories—big and small—is putting our dreams of eradicating (or controlling) cancer closer than ever to reality. We hope you will join us in our fight against cancer through basic and translational research at this most opportune and exciting time.

We invite you to learn more about:

• Our History
• Chair's Corner
• Faculty
• Graduate Program
• Seminars & Symposia

Recent Publications

The following publications have been recently published by Cancer Biology faculty:

• Wang, Chenran; Haas, Michael A., Yang, Fuchun; Yeo, Syn; Okamoto, Takako; Chen, Song; Wen, Jian; Sarma, Pranjal; Plas, David R.; Guan, Jun-Lin 11-2019. Autophagic lipid metabolism sustains mTORC1 activity in TSC-deficient neural stem cells. Nature Metabolism, 1, 1127–1140
• Goyal, Lipika; Shi, Lei; Liu, Leah Y; Fece de la Cruz, Ferran; Lennerz, Jochen K; Raghavan, Srivatsan; Leschiner, Ignaty; Elagina, Liudmila; Siravegna, Giulia; Ng, Raymond W S; Vu, Phuong; Patra, Krushna C; Saha, Supriya K; Uppot, Raul N; Arellano, Ron; Reyes, Stephanie; Sagara, Takeshi; Otsuki, Sachie; Nadres, Brandon; Shahzade, Heather A; Dey-Guha, Ipsita; Fetter, Isobel J; Baiev, Islam; Van Seventer, Emily E; Murphy, Janet E; Ferrone, Cristina R; Tanabe, Kenneth K; Deshpande, Vikram; Harding, James J; Yaeger, Rona; Kelley, Robin K; Bardelli, Alberto; Iafrate, A John; Hahn, William C; Benes, Cyril H; Ting, David T; Hirai, Hiroshi; Getz, Gad; Juric, Dejan; Zhu, Andrew X; Corcoran, Ryan B; Bardeesy, Nabeel 2019. TAS-120 Overcomes Resistance to ATP-Competitive FGFR Inhibitors in Patients with FGFR2 Fusion-Positive Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma. Cancer Discovery, 9 8, 1064-1079
• Zachari, Maria; Gudmundsson, Sigurdur R; Li, Ziyue; Manifava, Maria; Shah, Ronak; Smith, Matthew; Stronge, James; Karanasios, Eleftherios; Piunti, Caterina; Kishi-Itakura, Chieko; Vihinen, Helena; Jokitalo, Eija; Guan, Jun-Lin; Buss, Folma; Smith, Andrew M; Walker, Simon A; Eskelinen, Eeva-Liisa; Ktistakis, Nicholas T 2019. Selective Autophagy of Mitochondria on a Ubiquitin-Endoplasmic-Reticulum Platform. Developmental cell, 50(5):627-643.e5.
• Melgar, Katelyn; Walker, Morgan M; Jones, LaQuita M; Bolanos, Lyndsey C; Hueneman, Kathleen; Wunderlich, Mark; Jiang, Jiang-Kang; Wilson, Kelli M; Zhang, Xiaohu; Sutter, Patrick; Wang, Amy; Xu, Xin; Choi, Kwangmin; Tawa, Gregory; Lorimer, Donald; Abendroth, Jan; O'Brien, Eric; Hoyt, Scott B; Berman, Ellin; Famulare, Christopher A; Mulloy, James C; Levine, Ross L; Perentesis, John P; Thomas, Craig J; Starczynowski, Daniel T 2019. Overcoming adaptive therapy resistance in AML by targeting immune response pathways. Science translational medicine, 11 508
• Kofuji, S.; Hirayama, A.; Eberhardt, A. O.; Kawaguchi, R.; Sugiura, Y.; Sampetrean, O.; Ikeda, Y.; Warren, M.; Sakamoto, N.; Kitahara, S.; Yoshino, H.; Yamashita, D.; Sumita, K.; Wolfe, K.; Lange, L.; Ikeda, S.; Shimada, H.; Minami, N.; Malhotra, A.; Morioka, S.; Ban, Y.; Asano, M.; Flanary, V. L.; Ramkissoon, A.; Chow, L. M L; Kiyokawa, J.; Mashimo, T.; Lucey, G.; Mareninov, S.; Ozawa, T.; Onishi, N.; Okumura, K.; Terakawa, J.; Daikoku, T.; Wise-Draper, T.; Majd, N.; Kofuji, K.; Sasaki, M.; Mori, M.; Kanemura, Y.; Smith, E. P; Anastasiou, D.; Wakimoto, H.; Holland, E. C; Yong, W. H; Horbinski, C.; Nakano, I.; DeBerardinis, R. J.; Bachoo, R. M.; Mischel, P. S; Yasui, W..; Suematsu, M.; Saya, H.; Soga, T.; Grummt, I.; Bierhoff, H.; Sasaki, Atsuo, T. 2019. IMP dehydrogenase-2 drives aberrant nucleolar activity and promotes tumorigenesis in glioblastoma.Nature Cell Biology. 21(8):1003-1014

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Latest News/Events

Congratulations to David Plas, PhD!

Dr. Plas, Cancer Biology professor, has been awarded an NIH R01 from the National Cancer Institute. The five year grant entitled “Co-targeting S6 and TAM kinases in PTEN-deficient glioblastoma” will support experiments to target the S6K and TAM family of tyrosine kinases in glioblastoma.



Please Join Us for a Presentation & Reception Honoring the Memory of
Dr. Robert Cardell, Jr

Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019
12:30 pm to 2:00 pm 
Rieveschl Auditorium at the Vontz Center

Welcome Yanbo Fan, PhD!

Effective 10/15/19: Dr. Yanbo Fan will join the University of Cincinnati as an assistant professor in the Department of Cancer Biology. Dr. Fan’s research will focus on defining the role of transcription factor EB (TFEB), a master regulatory gene for autophagy and lysosome biogenesis, in vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells important for angiogenesis, cancer metastasis, aneurysm and other vascular and metabolic diseases.

Congratulations to Xiaoting Zhang, PhD!

Dr. Zhang, Cancer Biology professor, has been awarded his second NIH R01 from the National Cancer Institute.  The five year grant entitled “Small RNAs in Breast Cancer Metastasis” will focus on the regulation and function of a key tissue-specific estrogen receptor coactivator MED1 and its upstream and downstream small RNA pathways in breast cancer.

Congratulations to JJ Diao, PhD!

Dr. Diao, Cancer Biology assistant professor, has been awarded an NIH R21 from the National Institute on Aging.  The two year grant entitled “Single-molecule study of alpha-synuclein” will focus on multiple single-molecule/single-particle biophysical and biochemical assays used to characterize the oligomerization and function of α-synuclein in membrane environments mimicking presynaptic terminals.

Congratulations to Maria Czyzyk-Krzeska, PhD!

Dr. Czyzyk-Krzeska, Cancer Biology professor, has been awarded an NIH R01 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.  The four year grant entitled “Mechanisms of selective autophagy” will focus on a novel, selective, human-specific autophagy downstream from the von Hippel Lindau tumor suppressor gene;  a pathway that is regulated by several non-canonical regulators and targets for degradation oncogenic cargo.