Positions

Overview

  • The overall goal of Dr. Lu’s laboratory is to better understand the epigenetic mechanisms that underlie cancer cell development, and to develop mechanism-based and targeted therapeutic approaches. Dr. Lu’s lab currently is focusing on understanding epigenetic regulations in blood cancer. Recent projects in Dr. Lu’s lab include the following directions: (1) understanding the molecular basis of driver mutations in cancer; (2) discovery of novel targets for cancer epigenetic therapies; (3) development of new epigenome editing tools to study gene regulation in normal and cancer cells.

    • Selected Publications

    Academic Article

    Year Title Altmetric
    2021 Inhibition of EZH2 primes the cardiac gene activation via removal of epigenetic repression during human direct cardiac reprogramming.  Stem Cell Research.  102365-102365. 2021
    2020 Functional interrogation of HOXA9 regulome in MLLr leukemia via reporter-based CRISPR/Cas9 screen.  eLife.  9:1-30. 2020
    2020 E2A-PBX1 functions as a coactivator for RUNX1 in acute lymphoblastic leukemia.  Blood.  136:11-23. 2020
    2019 A model system for studying the DNMT3A HOTSPO mutation (DNMT3AR882) demonstrates a causal relationship between its dominant-negative effect and leukemogenesis.  Cancer Research.  79:3583-3594. 2019
    2018 ZFX Mediates Non-canonical Oncogenic Functions of the Androgen Receptor Splice Variant 7 in Castrate-Resistant Prostate Cancer.  Molecular Cell.  72:341-354.e6. 2018
    2018 The Chromatin Remodeler BPTF Activates a Stemness Gene-Expression Program Essential for the Maintenance of Adult Hematopoietic Stem Cells.  Stem Cell Reports.  10:675-683. 2018
    2018 Structural basis for DNMT3A-mediated de novo DNA methylation.  Nature.  554:387-391. 2018
    2017 Pharmacologic targeting of chromatin modulators as therapeutics of acute myeloid leukemia.  Frontiers in Oncology.  7. 2017
    2016 Epigenetic Perturbations by Arg882-Mutated DNMT3A Potentiate Aberrant Stem Cell Gene-Expression Program and Acute Leukemia Development.  Cancer Cell.  30:92-107. 2016
    2016 Bmi1 Is a Key Epigenetic Barrier to Direct Cardiac Reprogramming.  Cell Stem Cell.  18:382-395. 2016
    2016 Gene enhancer deregulation and epigenetic vulnerability.  Oncoscience.  3:299-301. 2016
    2015 Stk40 represses adipogenesis through translational control of CCAAT/enhancer-binding proteins.  Journal of Cell Science.  128:2881-2890. 2015
    2013 Tudor: A versatile family of histone methylation 'readers'.  Trends in Biochemical Sciences.  38:546-555. 2013
    2013 An H3K36 Methylation-Engaging Tudor Motif of Polycomb-like Proteins Mediates PRC2 Complex Targeting.  Molecular Cell.  49:571-582. 2013
    2011 Nucleolin maintains embryonic stem cell self-renewal by suppression of p53 protein-dependent pathway.  Journal of Biological Chemistry.  286:43370-43382. 2011
    2011 Dual functions of T-box 3 (Tbx3) in the control of self-renewal and extraembryonic endoderm differentiation in mouse embryonic stem cells.  Journal of Biological Chemistry.  286:8425-8436. 2011
    2010 Stk40 links the pluripotency factor Oct4 to the Erk/MAPK pathway and controls extraembryonic endoderm differentiation 2010
    2009 Ly-1 antibody reactive clone is an important nucleolar protein for control of self-renewal and differentiation in embryonic stem cells.  STEM CELLS.  27:1244-1254. 2009
    2006 Inducible and reversible suppression of Npm1 gene expression using stably integrated small interfering RNA vector in mouse embryonic stem cells.  Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.  347:1129-1137. 2006

    Education And Training

  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • Doctor of Philosophy in Developmental Biology and Embryology, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 2011
  • Bachelor of Science or Mathematics in Biology, Nanjing Normal University 2005

    • Full Name

  • Rui Lu