The Department of Biochemistry's weekly BCH 252 seminar series is presented this week by

Gangning Liang, Professor of Research Urology, Director of Epigenetic Translational Research at the USC Institute of Urology, Keck School of Medicine, USC

Seminar Title: "SETD2 deficiency is a therapeutic target to upregulate viral mimicry in treating aggressive kidney cancer"

Abstract: Gangning Liang, PhD, MD, is a Professor of Department of Urology and Director of Epigenetic Translational Research of USC Institute of Urology at Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. His research interests include investigating epigenome structures, epigenomic alterations during tumorigenesis, and epigenetic alterations induced by drug treatment in cancer therapies. His research has laid the groundwork for the proposed research project including the roles of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs)and microRNAs during tumorigenesis and novel methods of characterizing epigenetic changes and monitoring these changes in patients. In this regard, he has identified epigenetic alterations in urine sediments for bladder cancer-based diagnostic and prognostic purposes, more recently he also is also developing similar assay in kidney and prostate cancer, as well as introducing epigenetic therapy for cancer treatment in preclinical models. He is currently using these techniques and models, which he developed, to not only to further study the role of epigenetic regulation during tumorigenesis, but also to establish new translational projects that directly address clinical questions. He is focusing on his translational research to use epigenetic alteration as foundation to identify drug targets in a selective and predictable way for precision cancer medicine and to improve in patient survival and quality of life. He published extensively in journals including Cell, Nature, Cancer Cell, Molecular Cell, Genome Research, Hepatology, Nature Communications, Genome Biology, PNAS, Cancer Research, and Oncogene with over 120 peer reviewed articles.

Seminar Host: Dr. Jikui Song;  jikui.song@ucr.edu