Jason Hanna
Purdue University, IN·Biology
Angiosarcomas are aggressive cancers that arise in endothelial cells, the cells lining blood vessels. Patients have a poor outlook and few treatment options.
- Fields
Biology
Genetics
Pharmacology
- Topics
angiosarcoma
soft tissue sarcoma
vascular sarcoma
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2031
What they work on
- Evaluate the functional effects of new tumor-suppressing miRNA candidates, identified by a CRISPR-Cas9 miRNA-focused guide RNA screen, in normal endothelial cells and angiosarcoma.
- Define the regulatory network of the candidate miRNAs, identifying which target genes they repress to keep endothelial cells from becoming cancerous after DICER1 loss.
- Test whether enoxacin, a repurposed FDA-approved antibiotic that enhances miRNA processing, can act as a therapy for angiosarcoma.
- Use enoxacin as a tool to boost miRNA biogenesis and further understand how miRNAs suppress tumor formation in endothelial cells.
More about the research
Because the disease is rare, research tools are limited and new therapies have been slow to come. This project studies microRNAs (miRNAs), tiny RNA molecules that turn down the activity of specific genes, as hidden brakes on this cancer and as possible treatment targets.
Why it matters
Patients with angiosarcoma, a rare and often fatal blood-vessel cancer, have few effective treatments. Identifying the miRNAs that hold this cancer in check could reveal new drug targets. Testing enoxacin, an already-approved antibiotic that boosts miRNA production, could point toward a repurposed therapy that exploits this weakness.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Francesca Briganti
University of California-San Diego, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Test candidate miRNAs in stem-cell-derived heart muscle cells (iPSC-CMs) carrying DCM variants in PLN, RBM20 or TNNT2, to find the mechanisms by which they improve contraction.
Kotaro Nakanishi
Ohio State University, OH·Biochemistry
Determine how AGO2 and AGO3 loaded with cleavage-inducing tiny RNAs (cityRNAs) recognize the sequence just upstream of their target site and cut target RNA, using structural studies and RNA sequencing.
Haotian Zhao
New York Institute of Technology, NY·Biology
Test whether microRNAs, short RNAs that reduce target gene activity, influence the formation of cells bearing many hair-like projections in the choroid plexus, using both animal and cell-culture experiments.
The school
Purdue University: 43 labs on PI Pages, $932M a year on research, 833 research doctorates a year.
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