Wenliang Li
Professor
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
McGovern Medical School
Institute of Molecular Medicine
Dr. Wenliang Li’s research is to study novel molecular mechanisms of metastasis with the goal of identifying new biomarkers and drug targets for the development of better therapeutics for human cancers.
Through genomics, RNAi and cDNA functional screens, Dr. Li’s lab has identified several critical but previously unknown regulators for cancer metastasis. Signaling pathways and molecular mechanisms of these genes are in study with molecular, cellular, biochemical, genomic and proteomic approaches, genetic and xenograft mouse models, as well as cancer patient samples.
For example, Dr. Li’s lab is studying GRK3 (G protein-coupled receptor kinase 3), a kinase they identified from shRNA/cDNA screening, in the progression of CRPC (castration resistant prostate cancer), especially the highly metastatic variant of CRPC, the t-NEPC (treatment-related neuroendocrine prostate cancer). Specific inhibitors targeting some of these novel regulators have been or are being identified from molecular docking analyses (virtual screening with computer) or compound library screening on bench.
One group of exciting new cancer targets actively pursued in Dr. Li lab are cell surface or secreted proteins. Their roles and mechanisms in cancer progression are being investigated. Through collaborations with neighboring lab of Dr. Zhiqiang An, Director of Texas Therapeutics Institute, Dr. Li lab is discovering and characterizing novel antibodies as therapeutics candidates. Some of them will be further developed into other antibody-based therapies, such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), bio-specific antibody or CART cell therapy.
Another exciting research program in Dr. Li’s lab is involved in identifying and studying novel regulators of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). EMT, a developmental process, is believed to play a key role in drug resistance, organ fibrosis and cancer metastasis. Dr. Li’s lab was the first group to perform a kinome cDNA screening on EMT and has identified several new critical regulators of EMT. Investigations of the molecular mechanisms of these kinases have had a significant impact in expanding our knowledge in cancer progressing. Some of these kinases are being targeted by novel inhibitors.
Rotation students will participate in studies to investigate molecular mechanisms for metastasis and NEPC. We have obtained inhibitors or antibody drug candidates for some of novel regulators we discovered, which will also allow rotation students to perform experiments pertaining to the development of new cancer therapeutics. These studies will provide rotation students ample training in signal transduction, mouse models of cancer, development of molecular therapeutics, epigenetics, and bioinformatics.
McGovern Medical School Faculty
Education & Training
PhD, Case Western Reserve University, 2004
Postdoc Fellow, Harvard Medical School, 2010