Page 44 - Hormel Report 2021

Liang Liu, Ph.D.
“Understanding the environmental origin of cancer and associated mechanisms will facilitate the development of targeted
cancer prevention strategies and therapies.”
Liang Liu
44 | THE HORMEL INSTITUTE // Chromatin and
Epigenetic Gene Regulation
SECTION LEADER / ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Research in my lab focuses on the cross- talk between genetic and epigenetic factors in regulating tissue homeostasis
and cancer development. We integrate genetics, epigenetics, and functional genomics studies
to define the role of key cancer regulators and gene-environment interaction in cancer devel- opment, and to identify actionable targets for cancer prevention and treatment.
Molecular basis of UV-induced skin carcinogenesis, UV target gene identifi- cation and biomarker development for skin cancer prevention and treatment. Despite decades of extensive
research on UV radiation in
skin cancer development, there
remains a significant gap in our
knowledge of the critical genes
and pathways through which UV
promotes skin carcinogenesis.
In the past several years, my
lab has conducted multiomics
studies to define UV-induced
genetic and epigenetic alterations
in skin cells. We have identified master regulator genes of skin UV response as potential targets for developing mechanism-driven targeted approaches for skin cancer prevention and treatment. Additionally, we have defined a novel UV gene expression signature (UVGES) panel consisting of conserved UV target genes. This UVGES panel has a significant clinical potential to address the unmet need of sensitive molec- ular tests to quantify skin UV damage and skin cancer risk. To validate the clinical utility of
the UVGES panel, we are collaborating with
dermatologists to collect clinical samples for multiplex gene expression analysis using the Nanostring nCounter platform. Preliminary results show that a subset of the UVGES genes are specifically associated with high-risk skin cancer subtypes. We will continue to optimize the biomarker panel to improve its sensitivity and specificity. The long term goal of this project is to develop a cost-effective biomarker-based test to enable patient risk stratification for tar- geted cancer prevention and treatment.