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Many congratulations to Dr. Yonghao Yu for publishing a Science paper in Jun, 2011! Dr. Yu received his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006. As a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Julie Leary, he developed and implemented novel mass spectrometric technologies to characterize protein posttranslational modification and protein-protein, protein-carbohydrate and protein-drug interactions. In 2007, he joined the labs of Drs. Steven Gygi and John Blenis as a joint post-doctoral fellow in the |
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Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. There he continued to utilize mass spectrometry to characterize cancer signal transduction pathways. He will join the UT Southwestern Medical Center as an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry in spring 2012.
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The title of his paper is "Phosphoproteomic analysis identifies Grb10 as an mTORC1 substrate that negatively regulates insulin signaling" (Science, 2011 Jun 10;332(6035):1322-6). Here is the short description of his work:
The evolutionarily conserved kinase, mTOR, is distributed in two protein complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2, which play a critical role in regulating cell growth, proliferation, migration and survival. Numerous upstream genetic alterations converge on mTOR, leading to its hyperactivation in a broad spectrum of human cancers. However, the clinical evaluation of the mTORC1 inhibitor, rapamycin, in treating cancers has yielded disappointing results, which is due in part to rapidly developed resistance to the drug. To improve on rapamycin therapies, understanding how resistance occurs, identifying new therapeutic targets for future drug development, and revealing new biomarkers to improve on current assays used to monitor disease progression, are all needed. In order to accomplish these tasks, Dr. Yu and colleagues in the laboratories of Drs. John Blenis and Steven Gygi in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, have taken a global phospho-proteomic approach towards defining the signaling landscape downstream of both mTORC1 and mTORC2 (Yu et al., Science, 2011). Together, this team of scientists has identified a new mechanism for rapamycin resistance that provides opportunities for improving therapy, identified a possible tumor suppressor, and provided the entire research community with many new mTOR targets that will seed the discovery of new mechanisms that contribute to mTOR-mediated tumorigenesis, and thus new therapeutic strategies.
If anyone has interested in his research, you can email him directly at yonghao_yu@hms.harvard.edu
Cheers
HMS-CSSA
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