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Dong-Er Zhang

Research

Dr. Zhang’s laboratory studies the molecular basis of cancer development, progression, and treatment. Her laboratory uses genomic, proteomic, and cell biology approaches to address related questions and to explore therapeutic potentials based on newly obtained knowledge. A major project underway in the Zhang laboratory focuses on the transcription factor AML1 (RUNX1) and its fusion protein AML1-ETO in blood stem cells. As a second major project, the lab studies the role of a ubiquitin-like modifier ISG15 and a related protease USP18 (UBP43) in cancer immunology.

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Select Publications

  • Arimoto KI, Miyauchi S, Troutman TD, Zhang Y, Liu M, Stoner SA, Davis AG, Fan JB, Huang YJ, Yan M, Glass CK, Zhang DE. Expansion of interferon inducible gene pool via USP18 inhibition promotes cancer cell pyroptosis. Nat Commun. 2023 14:251. PMID: 36646704
  • Huang YJ, Chen JY, Yan M, Davis AG, Miyauchi S, Chen L, Hao Y, Katz S, Bejar R, Abdel-Wahab O, Fu XD, Zhang DE. RUNX1 Deficiency Cooperates with SRSF2 Mutation to Induce Multi-lineage Hematopoietic Defects Characteristic of MDS. Blood Adv. 2022, 6:6078-6092. PMID: 36206200.
  • Johnson DT, Zhou J, Kroll AV, Fang RH, Yan M, Xiao C, Chen X, Kline J, Zhang L, Zhang DE. Acute myeloid leukemia cell membrane-coated nanoparticles for cancer vaccination immunotherapy. Leukemia, 2022 36:994-1005. PMID: 34845316
  • Davis AG, Johnson DT, Zheng D, Wang R, Jayne ND, Liu M, Shin J, Wang L, Stoner SA, Zhou JH, Ball ED, Tian B, Zhang DE. Alternative polyadenylation dysregulation contributes to the differentiation block of acute myeloid leukemia. Blood, 2022 139:424-438. PMID: 34482400
  • Johnson DT, Davis AG, Zhou JH, Ball ED, Zhang DE. MicroRNA let-7b downregulates AML1-ETO oncogene expression in t(8;21) AML by targeting its 3'UTR. Exp Hematol Oncol. 2021 10:8. PMID: 33531067
  • Davis AG, Einstein JM, Zheng D, Jayne ND, Fu XD, Tian B, Yeo GW, Zhang DE. A CRISPR RNA-binding protein screen reveals regulators of RUNX1 isoform generation. Blood Adv. 2021 5:1310-1323. PMID: 33656539
  • Mudla A, Jiang Y, Arimoto KI, Xu B, Rajesh A, Ryan AP, Wang W, Daugherty MD, Zhang DE, Hao N. Cell-cycle-gated feedback control mediates desensitization to interferon stimulation. Elife 2020 9:e58825. PMID:32945770
  • Stoner SA, Liu KTH, Andrews ET, Liu M, Arimoto KI, Yan M, Davis AG, Weng S, Xian S, Dekelver RC, Carter H, Zhang DE. The RUNX1-ETO target gene RASSF2 suppresses t(8;21) AML development and regulates GTPase signaling. Blood Cancer J. 202010:16. PMID: 32029705
  • Fan JB, Miyauchi S, Xu HZ, Liu D, Kim LJY, Burkart C, Cheng H, Arimoto KI, Yan M, Zhou Y, Gyortty B, Knobeloch KP, Rich JN, Cang H, Fu XD, Zhang DE. Type I interferon regulates a coordinated gene network to enhance cytotoxic T cell mediated tumor killing. Cancer Discov. 2020 10:382-393. PMID 31974171
  • Stoner SA, Yan M, Liu KTH, Arimoto KI, Shima T, Wang HY, Johnson DT, Bejar R, Jamieson C, Guan KL, Zhang DE. Hippo kinase loss contributes to del(20q) hematologic malignancies through chronic innate immune activation. Blood. 2019 134:1730-44. PMID: 31434702

Biography

Dr. Dong-Er Zhang received her BS in Biochemistry at Peking (Beijing) University, China. She was selected to enter a graduate school in the United States through the CUSBEA (China-United States Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Examination and Administration) program and received her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Houston. She was a Postdoctoral Scholar/Instructor at the University of Texas and then Instructor/Assistant Professor at the Harvard Medical School. In 1999, Dr. Zhang was recruited by The Scripps Research Institute as Associate Professor and was subsequently promoted to the Full Professor level before joining UCSD. She is involved in multiple international grant review committees and also contributes to the organization of scientific conferences. Dr. Zhang was a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar (1998-2003) and received the prestigious Stolhman Scholar Award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She is also an elected fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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