Suzann Duan
University of California-Irvine, CA·Biology·Early-career
Neuroendocrine tumors of the stomach, intestine and pancreas are being diagnosed more often. Doctors still have few ways to screen for or treat them.
- Fields
Biology
Genetics
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
neuroendocrine tumors
menin
multiple endocrine neoplasia
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2028
What they work on
- Determine whether MEN1-associated gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors arise from reprogrammed enteric neural crest-derived cells (gut nervous-system precursor cells), using transgenic mice that lack menin in these cells.
- Decipher how Hedgehog signaling, a pathway that sets cell identity, drives neuroendocrine reprogramming of enteric neural crest-derived cells after Men1 loss, using ex vivo tissue culture and organoids.
- Test whether menin and Hedgehog signal to each other to produce overgrown neuroendocrine cells with tumor-forming potential, using single-cell and spatial transcriptome profiling of mouse gut tissue.
More about the research
A basic unknown is which cells these tumors come from, and which signals push normal cells toward becoming tumor cells. Knowing a tumor's starting cell and the pathways that drive it is a first step toward biomarkers and targeted treatments.
Why it matters
GEP-NETs are increasingly common and have limited screening and treatment options. Identifying their cells of origin and the role of Hedgehog signaling could point to personalized molecular biomarkers. It could also reveal a signaling pathway that drugs might target, which may eventually improve outcomes for patients with these tumors, including those with MEN1-associated disease.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Christin Kuo
Stanford University, CA·Biology
Identify and characterize a subset of neuroendocrine progenitors (NEPr) in distal human airway neuroepithelial bodies, using precision cut lung slice cultures from healthy adult lungs.
Laurianne Van Landeghem
North Carolina State University, NC·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine whether enteric glial cells help colon cancer stem cells resist chemotherapy by releasing FSTL3, using primary human cell cultures and 3D co-culture platforms.
Michael Barresi
Smith College, MA·Biology
Track cranial neural crest cells (CNCCs) as they migrate to and within the zebrafish forebrain during commissure formation, using live light-sheet microscopy.
The school
University of California-Irvine: 46 labs on PI Pages, $645M a year on research, 524 research doctorates a year.
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