Lab Members

Principal Investigator
Ronald A. DePinho, M.D.
Professor, Cancer Biology
RDePinho@MDAnderson.org

Li Cai
Postdoctoral Fellow
LCai@MDAnderson.org
Joined the lab in 2017

Li (Lily) Cai received her B.A. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Boston University in 2016. In our laboratory, Lily is investigating the immune inhibitory function of a ligand on tumor cells using highly immunogenic cancer models and exploring the antitumor effect of its inhibition in cancers. She is also working on a project that explores the role of CHD1 and IL6 in the microenvironment of prostate cancer. She expects her work to contribute to novel immunotherapies in a variety of cancers.

Ko-Chien Chen
Graduate Research Assistant
KChen9@MDAnderson.org
Joined the lab in 2019

Ko-Chien (KC) Chen received her B.S. from the University of British Columbia and her M.S. from National Taiwan University. After graduation, Ko-Chien worked as a research assistant investigating the role of exosomes in the tumor microenvironment. Moreover, she also participated in another project aimed to identify diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for various tyles and stages of breast cancer. She is currently a graduate student in the Ph.D. program at the MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and is working on identifying collateral lethal targets in PTEN-null cancers.

Pingna Deng 
Research Investigator
PDeng@MDAnderson.org
Joined the lab in 2010

Pingna Deng graduated from Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Science and trained and practiced as an obstetrician and gynecologist in China.  After moving to the U.S., she took the USMLE examination and pre-matched to York Hospital, Pennsylvania, for obstetrics and gynecology training. Ultimately, her interests turned to cancer research. In our lab, she focuses her efforts on research technology, cancer biology and biochemistry experiments and applications, laboratory management, mouse model generation and colony maintenance. In her spare time, she volunteers at clinics while continuing to pursue her passion for science, medicine and women’s health.

Jincheng Han
Graduate Research Assistant
JHan6@MDAnderson.org
Joined the lab in 2019

Jincheng Han received his B.E. in bioengineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2018. During his undergraduate and rotation studies, he actively participated in a variety of labs having different focuses, including immunology, computational biology and single cell sequencing technology. In our laboratory, Jincheng plans to investigate mechanisms by which pancreatic cancer responds to novel immune checkpoint blockade antibodies. He expects to discover novel mechanisms that will lead to new combination therapies for patients.

Jiexi Li
Ph.D. Student
JLi24@MDAanderson.org
Joined the lab in 2017

Jiexi Li received her bachelor’s degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, and her master’s degree from New York University. After graduation, she worked with Dr. Effie Apostolou at Weill Cornell Medical College as a research technician and lab manager, during which time she was trained intensively in epigenetics, embryonic stem cells and iPSC study. In our lab, Jiexi is using a colorectal cancer mouse model to study the epigenetic factors that govern colorectal cancer liver metastasis in a gender-specific manner. She expects her findings to contribute to advances in clinical treatment of colorectal cancer metastasis. 

Xiaoying Shang, Ph.D.
Research Investigator
XShang@MDAnderson.org
Joined the lab in 2015

Xiaoying obtained her Ph.D. in 2003 in tumor immunology from Peking University, Beijing, China, where she identified the CD8+ T cell response to HLA-A2 restricted peptides MAGE p271-279 and NY-ESO-1 p157-165 from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. She began her scientific career at Baylor College of Medicine as a postdoctoral fellow and then an instructor focusing on a pediatric cancer, neuroblastoma. She identified that the cell cycle-related gene, Aurora A, is a negative prognostic factor and a new therapeutic target in human neuroblastoma. She also developed a deeper understanding of how neuroblastoma derived secreted protein (NDSP) influences neuroblastoma tumor cell growth. In addition, Xiaoying identified the possible roles and mechanism of Dual-specificity phosphatase 26 (DUSP26) in neuroblastoma and found that inhibition of this phosphatase may increase neuroblastoma chemosensitivity, and possibly be a therapeutic target for this aggressive pediatric malignancy. In our lab, Xiaoying continues to make contributions to support multiple cancer projects, with a goal of identifying novel drug targets and therapeutic strategies for cancer patients.

Hong Seok Shim, Ph.D.
Instructor
HShim@MDAnderson.org
Joined the lab in 2015

Hong Seok Shim earned his Ph.D. in biological sciences from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. During his graduate studies, he identified REV1 and EGR1 as important signaling nodes linking nutrient sensing and metabolic control to cell fate in cancer cells. He found that REV1 SUMOylation and the glucose-PKA-AMPK-EGR1 pathway contribute to selectively protect normal cells while sensitizing cancer cells to chemotherapy. In our laboratory, Hong is developing small-molecule telomerase-activating compounds and validating their anti-aging effects in mouse and human. He also has been establishing new inducible telomerase activation mouse models and assessing telomerase’s beneficial role in natural aging and age-related diseases.

Yan Xia, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
YXia@MDAnderson.org
Joined the lab in 2019

Yan Xia graduated from Nanjing University, China and obtained her Ph.D. from Umea University, Sweden. Yan did her postdoctoral training in Dr. Tony Hunter’s lab in The Salk Institute, where she was awarded the California Breast Cancer Research Program postdoctoral fellowship to support her research on BRCA1 tumor suppressor as an E3 ubiquitin ligase. Since joining MD Anderson Cancer Center, Yan has focused on cancer metabolism research to pursue the functional mechanisms of PKM2, PGK1, KHK-A in Warburg effect and tumorigenesis and the novel roles of these metabolic enzymes as protein kinases, which have been published on multiple top journals. In our laboratory, she is mainly responsible for guiding graduate students, applying for grants and coordinating projects on understanding the mechanisms and treatments of oncogenic KRAS PDAC, CRC and prostate cancer.

Yonghong Liu, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
YLiu38@MDAnderson.org
Joined the lab in 2021

Yonghong earned his bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from Hunan University, and his master’s degree in biomedical sciences from Xiamen University, where he discovered that hepatitis B virus X (HBx) and amplified in breast cancer 1 (AIB1) cooperatively promote human hepatocellular carcinoma cell invasiveness. Yonghong earned his Ph.D. in medical sciences from Texas A&M University in 2019. During his Ph.D. studies, he characterized the tumor suppressive role of nuclear receptor coactivator 6 (NCOA6) in prostate cancer and identified EGFR as a therapeutic target for treating NCOA6-deficient prostate cancer. He was awarded the DoD Prostate Cancer Research Program Early Investigator Research Award, and under the support he continued his research on NCOA6 as a postdoctoral fellow in the same lab. In our laboratory, Yonghong is studying KRAS bypass mechanisms in the context of CDKN2A deletion by generating and characterizing a series of PDAC mouse models. He expects to illuminate novel KRAS bypass mechanisms that will be translated into therapeutics.

Yutao Qi, Ph.D.
Graduate Student
YQi3@MDAnderson.org
Joined the lab in 2021

Yutao Qi received his master’s degree from Tsinghua University in China, where he gained his first intensive training in biochemistry and structural biology. After graduation, he was further trained in systems and synthetic biology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and cancer and cell biology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. In our laboratory, Yutao is using multidisciplinary approaches, including new mouse models, to study tissue homeostasis, tumorigenesis and cancer metastasis. He expects his findings to contribute to cancer diagnosis, prevention and treatment.