Shang su, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
shang.su@utoledo.edu
EDUCATION:
| B.S. | 2011 | Biological Sciences | Tsinghua University, Beijing, China |
| Ph.D. | 2019 | Cell Biology | Tsinghua University, Bejing, China |
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
My current research mainly focuses on deciphering the underlying mechanisms of tumor
dormancy, tumor progression, and drug resistance in prostate cancer bone metastases
and developing novel agents to target vital players involved in these biological processes.
I am also engaging the targeted protein degradation techniques such as proteolysis-targeting
chimera (PROTAC) in prostate cancer studies to modulate the levels of key driver proteins.
In collaboration with Dr. Li during my post-doctoral training, we discovered an AR-PTH1R-TGFBR2
axis that mediates the enzalutamide resistance in prostate cancer bone metastases.
Specifically, androgen receptor (AR) blockade by enzalutamide induces PTH1R activation
in osteoblasts, the key bone-forming cells in the bone microenvironment, which in
turns trigger the degradation of TGFBR2 in osteoblasts and renders the resistance
(Cancer Letters, 2021). We are now developing multi-modal approaches to target PTH1R
to overcome enzalutamide resistance. We also discovered that surgical removal of primary
prostate tumors, although reducing the overall tumor burden, resulted in the limited
enrichment of disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) in the bone cortex and these DTCs were
majorly dormant before progression into bone marrow. The osteoblasts are inducers
of prostate cancer dormancy in the bone microenvironment through physical contact
with the tumor cells and possibly by inhibiting the focal adhesion kinase activity
to induce the dormancy. We are now conducting further investigations on how physical
contact between the osteoblasts and DTCs induce the dormancy and how FAK is inhibited
during this process.
FUNDING:
Ongoing Research Support
Exploration Hypothesis Development Award: HT9425-23-1-0015
01/01/2023-12/31/2024
A CLOUD (CRISPR-Mediated Loci-Specific Unbiased Discovery) Atlas of Regulatory Binding
Proteins for Driver Genes in Prostate Cancer Bone Metastases
Role: PI
Completed Research Support
PUBLICATIONS:
STUDENT OPENINGS: Not accepting students