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Zhang-Qun Chen, Ph.D.

Laboratory of Experimental Immunology Human Genetics Section Staff Scientist (Contr) National Cancer Institute at Frederick Bldg. 560, Room 21-43 PO Box B Frederick, MD 21702 Phone:   301-846-1728 Fax:   301-846-1673 E-Mail:   chenz@ncifcrf.gov

Biography

Dr. Zhang-qun Chen, received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1978 from the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry, Academia Sinica, China. He is currently a Senior Scientist in the Human Genetics Section, CIP, where his research is focused on the studies of ABC genes and cancer genetics.

Research

ABCE1 gene

ABCE1 gene is a member of ATP-binding cassette transporters gene superfamily. It has been recognized as an inhibitor of RNase L since 1995. It was also identified as an essential factor for assembly of immature HIV-1 gag proteins capsids. Recently, our laboratory has found that ABCE1 gene plays a crucial role in the process of translation initiation in mammalian cell. It associated with initiation factors, such as eIF2 and eIF5. The knock out or inhibition of ABCE1 gene expression from yeast, Xenopus Laevis embryo and cancer cell resulted cell or embryo lethal. Therefore, ABCE1 is a gene with multiple functions and an essential from archaea to eukaryotes. The inhibition of ABCE1 expression by siRNA induced apoptosis of cancer cell, hence ABCE1 gene may be a good potential target for cancer therapy. Development of the specific inhibitors and delivery systems are current efforts.

Cancer genetics

The research in this field included: Identification, purification, characterization and inhibition of cancer stem cells from tumor cells and the follow up analysis of breast cancer or other type cancer risk genes identified from genome-wide association study.

This page was last updated on 3/26/2009.