Journal of Cellular Signaling

Le Su

Molecular Mechanisms of Sarcomagenesis

HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology

USA

Academic Editor

Biography

Le Su, PhD, has been actively involved in sarcoma research for nearly ten years. As a Junior Fellow at HudsonAlpha, his major focus is on chromosomal translocation-associated sarcomagenesis in children and young adults. Before joining HudsonAlpha in 2016, Su led a molecular proteomics laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia in Canada where he also earned his PhD in Cell Biology (2014). His research efforts directly led to fundamental breakthroughs that define a crucial role for synovial sarcoma-specific SS18-SSX chimeric oncoprotein in epigenetic dysregulation of tumor suppressor pathways. Through close collaboration with clinical scientists, these mechanistic studies have successfully been brought into clinical trials that opened in several medical institutes across Canada. Su’s research interests stem from his previous findings that histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors block SS18-SSX transcriptional activity and induce synovial sarcoma cell death. Recently, this epigenomic research has been extended unexpectedly to the ubiquitin system by which HDAC inhibitor treatment causes SS18-SSX depletion. The underlying mechanism may not only support the first targeted strategy to treat currently incurable synovial sarcoma, but also revolutionize our understanding of the anti-cancer action of HDAC inhibitors.

Research Interest

Molecular mechanisms of sarcomagenesis