Brain Cancer research Lab

The Yun lab focuses on elucidating mechanisms that regulate therapy resistance and tumor recurrence in brain cancer with a goal of develop new therapies for glioblastoma and medulloblastoma patients. Our observations over the years and new knowledge in the field indicate that cell:cell communication and tumor microenvironment play major roles in modulating cancer stem cell maintenance, immune evasion, and therapy response. To identify cell-intrinsic and -extrinsic factors that control cancer stem cell proliferation, survival and differentiation, we develop and utilize genetically engineered mouse models, patient derived xenograft (PDX) models, primary tumorsphere cultures, and organotypic tumor slice cultures. Our analyses of brain cancer stem cell regulators have led us to expand our studies into tumor immunology and single cell genomics. Therefore, a major area of current research is elucidating the interplay between brain cancer stem cells and the tumor immune microenvironment. Towards this goal, we have sequenced over 250,000 cancer and immune cells from human and mouse gliomas and defined molecular phenotypes of glioma associated myeloid cells and deciphered cell:cell communication among different cell types within the local microenvironment. In addition, to translate our findings, we are developing a new small molecule inhibitors and therapeutic antibodies against dual regulators of cancer stem cells and immune suppression.

 

Areas of expertise: 1. cancer stem cells 2. glioblastoma 3. brain cancer 4. medulloblastoma 5. targeted therapy 6. diagnostic device 7. signaling pathways