Positions

Overview

  • Introduction & Research:

    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 Acute depletion of CTCF rewires genome-wide chromatin accessibility.  Genome Biology.  22. 2021
    2021 Metabolic alterations mediated by STAT3 promotes drug persistence in CML.  Leukemia.  35:3371-3382. 2021
    2021 Transcription factor MEF2D is required for the maintenance of MLL-rearranged acute myeloid leukemia.  Blood Advances.  5:4727-4740. 2021
    2021 Inhibition of EZH2 primes the cardiac gene activation via removal of epigenetic repression during human direct cardiac reprogramming.  Stem Cell Research.  53. 2021
    2021 Molecular regulators of HOXA9 in acute myeloid leukemia 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