Yangxin Fu

Area of Study / Keywords

Ovarian cancer Signaling pathway Chemoresistance Notch pathway Cancer stem cells Glioblastoma RNA methylation RNA methyltransferase

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About

Dr. YangXin Fu is currently appointed as Associate Professor in the Division of Experimental Oncology in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry.

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Research

Our group has two main areas of interest: (1) Molecular mechanisms governing the tumorigenic phenotypes in ovarian cancer (signaling pathways and gene regulation) and (2) the impact of rRNA methylations on mRNA translation and the tumorigenic phenotypes in glioblastoma.

Project 1: To determine the molecular mechanisms governing the tumorigenic phenotypes in ovarian cancer. Current therapeutic regimens against advanced ovarian cancer are ineffective due to recurrent therapy resistant disease, driven at least in part by tumor heterogeneity. There is an urgent need to determine the molecular mechanisms by which the tumorigenic phenotypes are regulated, which will help identify potential novel therapeutic targets to treat ovarian cancer. This project is to study transcriptional regulation of the genes that are critical for cancer stem cells, proliferation, and metastasis in ovarian cancer. High throughput approaches (RNA-sequencing and ChIP-sequencing), as well as, in vitro and in vivo models are used to tackle this question.

Project 2: To determine the functional impact of rRNA methylations on mRNA translation and the tumorigenic phenotypes in glioblastoma. Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive malignant primary brain tumor. The median survival of adults with glioblastoma is about 14.6 months even with aggressive surgical resection, radiation and chemotherapy. We need to better understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the initiation and progression of glioblastoma to develop novel therapeutics. Cancer cells have unique (specialized) and heterogeneous ribosomes that favors translation of subsets of mRNA associated with tumor initiation and/or progression. The objective of this project is to determine how rRNA methylations alter ribosome biogenesis and structure, thereby affecting mRNA translation and the tumorigenic phenotypes in glioblastoma.

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Teaching

Oncology 320, Oncology 425, and Discovery Learning

ONCOL 320 - Introduction to Oncology

Provides an introduction to oncology with an emphasis on the molecular and cellular biology of cancer. Specific topics include the genetic basis of cancer, the control of cell proliferation, metastasis, tumour immunology, angiogenesis, and cancer therapies. Prerequisite: BIOL 201 or CELL 201 with a minimum grade of C, or consent of the Department.

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Browse more courses taught by Yangxin Fu

Olivia Cardinal, Chloe Burlot, Yangxin Fu, Powel Crosley, Mary Hitt, Morgan Craig, Adrianne L Jenner

Computational and Systems Oncology. 2022 June; 2 10.1002/cso2.1035

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Tyler Cooper, Dylan Dieters-Castator, Jiahui Liu, Gabrielle Siegers, Desmond Pink, John Lewis, YangXin Fu, Helen Steed, Gilles Lajoie, and Lynne-Marie Postovit

BioRxiv. 2022 March; 10.1101/2022.03.31.486596

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Nina M. Culum, Tyler T. Cooper, Gilles A. Lajoie, Thamara Dayarathna, Stephen H. Pasternak, Jiahui Liu, YangXin Fu, Lynne-Marie Postovit, François Lagugné-Labarthet

ANALYST. 2021 October; 146 10.1039/d1an01586a

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Crosley P., Farkkila A., Jenner A.L., Burlot C., Cardinal O., Potts K.G., Agopsowicz K., Pihlajoki M., Heikinheimo M., Craig M., Fu Y., Hitt M.M.

International journal of molecular sciences. 2021 April; 22 (9) 10.3390/ijms22094699