Zhao Yongliang
Assistant Professor
Laboratory of Genome Sciences & Information
Beijing Institute of Genomics
China
Biography
Dr. Zhao received his Bachelor degree in Preventive Medicine from China Medical University in 1986 and Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology and Toxicology from Institute of Radiation Medicine, Chinese Academy of Military and Medical Sciences in 1995. In 1998, he joined as a postdoctoral research fellow in the center for Radiological Research at Columbia University, and mainly worked on the molecular mechanisms of asbestos fiber/radiation-induced carcinogenesis. His early studies demonstrated, for the first time, that loss of TGFBI (known as Big-h3, TGF-Beta-induced) function was causally linked to human tumor progression. In 2003, he got his independent research funding from NASA agency and was then promoted to a Tenure-track Assistant Professor. Since then, he has been leading a group to systemically characterize the tumor suppressor function of TGFBI gene using in vitro cell culture and in vivo transgenic mouse model systems. One part of his studies published in Cancer Research identified the causal role of CpG promoter hypermethylation in the silence of TGFBI promoter in different origins of human cancer cells. The in vivo studies based on TGFBI-null mice have been finished and the results have been published in Cancer Research. The potential role of TGFBI loss in the defect of immune response and the chemotherapeutic resistance of human cancer cells are under investigation.
Research Interest
Radiation Medicine, Tumor progression, Cancer Research
Publications
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Zhao YL, Shao G, Piao CQ, Berenguer J and Hei TK. Downregulation of Betaig-h3 gene is involved in the tumorigenic process of human bronchial epithelial cells induced by heavy ion radiation. Radiation Res. 162(6): 655-9, 2004.
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Shao G, Balajee AS, Hei TK and Zhao YL*. p16INK4a downregulation is involved in immortalization of primary human prostate epithelial cells induced by telomerase. Mol. Carcinogenesis, 47(10):775-83, 2008.
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Zhang Y, Wen GY, Shao G, Lin CS, Bhagat G, Hei TK and Zhao YL*. TGFBI deficiency predisposes mice to spontaneous tumor development. Cancer Research 69(1):37-44, 2009.
