Research Department

Cancer Biology

Area of Research

Biography

Jean Zhao received her PhD from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1999. She did her postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Dr. Thomas M. Roberts, became an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School in 2003, and joined the faculty of DFCI and Harvard Medical School in 2006.

Research

We are interested in how kinases in general, and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases (PI3K) in particular, control malignant transformation. The work of our laboratory integrates molecular biology, tissue engineering and novel mouse models of human cancer to study oncogenic alterations in kinases that are involved in primary tumor formation and metastasis. In addition to our unique genetically engineered mouse models, we have developed a number of additional experimental systems, including, synthetic human tumors, and kinome-wide libraries of activated kinases to elucidate the mechanisms by which kinases function in cancer. We hope our studies will allow us to harness the potential of these molecules as specific targets for cancer therapies.

Select Publications

• Sopasakis VR, Liu P, Suzuki R, Kondo T, Winnay J, Tran TT, Asano T, Smyth G, Sajan MP, Farese R.V, Kahn C.R, Zhao J.J. Specific roles of the p110alpha isoform of phosphatidylinsositol 3-kinase in hepatic insulin signaling and metabolic regulation. Cell Metab. 2010 Mar 3;11(3):220-30.
  
  Liu P., Cheng H., Roberts TM, and Zhao JJ. Targeting the phosphoinositide 3-kinase pathway in cancer. Nature Rev. Drug Discov. 2009 8(8):627-44
  
  Cheng H., Liu P., Wang ZC, Zou L, Santiago S, Garbitt V, Gjoerup OV, Iglehart JD, Miron A, Richardson AL, Hahn WV, and Zhao J.J. SIK1 couples LKB1 to p53-dependent anoikis and suppresses metastasis. Sci Signal. 2009 2(80):ra35. PMC2752275.
  
  Jia, S., Liu, Z., Zhang, S., Liu, P., Zhang, L., Lee, S.H., Zhang, J., Signoretti, S., Loda, M., Roberts, T.M. and Zhao, J.J. Essential roles of PI(3)K-p110b in cell growth, metabolism and tumorigenesis. Nature, 2008; 454:776-9. PMC2750091
  
  Boehm, J.S., Zhao, J.J.*, Yao, J., Kim, S.Y., Firestein, R., Dunn, I.F., Sjostrom S.K., Garraway, L.A., Weremowicz, S., Richardson, A.L., Greulich, H., Stewart, C.J., Mulvey L.A., Shen, R.R., Ambrogio, L., Hirozane-Kishikawa, T., Hill, D.E., Vidal, M., Meyeron, M., Grenier, J.K., Hinkle, G., Root, D.E., Roberts, T.M., Lander, E.S., Polyak, K. and Hahn, W.C. Integrative genomic approaches identify IKBKE as a breast cancer oncogene. Cell, 2007; 129:1065-1079.

Trainees

• Cheng, Hailing, PhD
• Clayton, Linda, PhD
• Lee, Youngmi, PhD
• Ni, Jing, PhD
• Wang, Qi Theresa, PhD
• Yang, Janet, PhD