Academic Profile : Faculty
Asst Prof Hongbin Yang
Assistant Professor, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine
Email
Assistant Professor Hongbin Yang is a biochemist and cell biologist by training, with a focus on molecular mechanisms of cancer metabolism and DNA damage. After receiving his Ph.D. degree from Fudan University, China, he joined the University of Oxford for postdoctoral training, where he developed interest and knowledge in countering radiotherapy resistance in cancer using CRISPR screen. His research works led to the identification of novel therapeutic targets and previously unrecognised players in DNA damage response and repair.
Upon joining LKCMedicine as an assistant professor of cancer biology in 2024, Yang’s research team aims to address two key questions in cancer: how to counter therapeutic resistance and how to stop metastasis. With the belief that everything has a price, Yang is dedicated to identifying cancer’s genetic dependence (weaknesses) paid in exchange of therapeutic resistance and metastatic capability— the Achilles’ heels that could be exploited as novel therapeutic opportunities.
Upon joining LKCMedicine as an assistant professor of cancer biology in 2024, Yang’s research team aims to address two key questions in cancer: how to counter therapeutic resistance and how to stop metastasis. With the belief that everything has a price, Yang is dedicated to identifying cancer’s genetic dependence (weaknesses) paid in exchange of therapeutic resistance and metastatic capability— the Achilles’ heels that could be exploited as novel therapeutic opportunities.
To Counter Therapeutic Resistance in Cancer
Therapeutic resistance is encountered in nearly all cases of cancers and is one of the primary reasons for treatment failure and poor prognosis. The advent of CRISPR screen greatly potentiated the fast and efficient high-throughput identification of genetic dependence and genetic interactions. Employing the state-of-art genome-wide or focused CRISPR screen, we are now able to identify genetic vulnerabilities of cancers that already developed resistance against existing treatments, so that novel therapeutic strategies could be developed to target these 'Achilles' heels'. The effort in identifying such genetic weaknesses could also reveal mechanistic insights in resistance development.
To Identify Novel Factors Required by Metastasis
Cancer-related deaths are mainly due to distant metastases and our current inability in eliminating them. One possible approach to reduce cancer death is to target the key factors required for metastasis to restrain tumour cells to their primary site for surgical removal.
Increasing evidence showed that metastasis is a combinational outcome of not only cancer cells’ own efforts but also the facilitations from microenvironment. To date, all reported CRISPR screens aiming to identify metastasis-mediating factors were in vitro and, therefore, fell short of recapitulating such cancer-microenvironment interaction. One objective of the Yang Lab is to develop in vivo CRISPR screen platform tailored for the study of metastasis by providing all realistic routes, destinations, and challenges for metastatic processes in live animal.
Therapeutic resistance is encountered in nearly all cases of cancers and is one of the primary reasons for treatment failure and poor prognosis. The advent of CRISPR screen greatly potentiated the fast and efficient high-throughput identification of genetic dependence and genetic interactions. Employing the state-of-art genome-wide or focused CRISPR screen, we are now able to identify genetic vulnerabilities of cancers that already developed resistance against existing treatments, so that novel therapeutic strategies could be developed to target these 'Achilles' heels'. The effort in identifying such genetic weaknesses could also reveal mechanistic insights in resistance development.
To Identify Novel Factors Required by Metastasis
Cancer-related deaths are mainly due to distant metastases and our current inability in eliminating them. One possible approach to reduce cancer death is to target the key factors required for metastasis to restrain tumour cells to their primary site for surgical removal.
Increasing evidence showed that metastasis is a combinational outcome of not only cancer cells’ own efforts but also the facilitations from microenvironment. To date, all reported CRISPR screens aiming to identify metastasis-mediating factors were in vitro and, therefore, fell short of recapitulating such cancer-microenvironment interaction. One objective of the Yang Lab is to develop in vivo CRISPR screen platform tailored for the study of metastasis by providing all realistic routes, destinations, and challenges for metastatic processes in live animal.