报告题目： New Insights into early-stage bone colonization of disseminated breast cancer cells

报告人：Xiang (Shawn) Zhang, 美国Baylor医天美分子和细胞生物学系副教授

主持人：罗剑 研究员

报告时间⌚️：2017年6月29日 13:30-15:00

报告地点：闵行生科院534报告厅

主办单位：天美娱乐，科技处

 

报告人简介： 

Xiang (Shawn) Zhang现为美国Baylor医天美分子和细胞生物学系副教授，Zhang教授是目前肿瘤转移领域公认的冉冉升起的明星科学家之一🦵🏽，自2011年作为独立PI后，他以通讯作者身份在Nature🧘🏿‍♂️，Cell🤲🏽🧘🏽‍♀️，Cancer Cell🦴👨‍🦼，Nature Cell Biology等一流期刊发表多篇肿瘤转移的高水平研究论文🧏🏻‍♂️💁🏼，特别是在肿瘤骨转移上🧏🏿‍♂️，Zhang教授开拓性的发现了肿瘤骨转移新的微环境。

 

报告摘要：

We aim to overcome the challenge of eliminating microscopic metastases of breast cancer, so that distant recurrences and related deaths can be significantly reduced. We focused on bone micrometastases, which are precursors of overt bone metastases and possibly other metastases. Micrometastases are likely to differ from their parental primary tumors either due to Darwinian selection or because of adaption. In both cases, the microenvironment in distant organs plays a critical role in driving the selection and/or in shaping the adaptive reaction. Our previous studies demonstrate that luminal-like breast cancer cells require the microenvironment niche that exhibits osteogenesis activity. The direct adherens junction-based interaction with osteogenic cells leads to increased cell proliferation of cancer cells, via activation of the mTOR pathway.  Here, we presented two studies focusing on 1) mechanisms behind initial establishment of cancer-bone communication and 2) the development of pre-clinical models to recapitulate the cellular nature of micrometastases, mimic their habitat and allow expedited testing of their drug responses. Our results revealed novel sub-cellular structures and therapeutic vulnerability of disseminated tumor cells in the bone microenvironment.