Kiran Mahajan, Ph.D. Principal Investigator
The homeobox gene HOXB13 encodes a lineage-specific transcription factor in prostatic epithelial cells and is a critical regulator of hormone-refractory prostate cancers. Germline mutations in HOXB13 are linked to familial prostate cancer risk, but the underlying mechanisms that lead to cell transformation are unclear. We investigate how lineage specific transcription factors essential for prostate development are reactivated in tumors, epigenetic profiling of drug resistant tumors, cancer genomics and development of novel therapeutics for personalized medicine.
Post-doctoral Fellow
Arun Renganathan Ph.D. Post-doctoral Fellow
Arun has a background in molecular biology and cancer biology. Arun aims to delineate the role of long-non-coding RNAs in HOX gene regulation using human, mouse, and zebrafish models.
Duy Nguyen, B.S. Research Associate
Duy is interested in how HOXB13 dependent transcriptional networks drive metastatic prostate cancer progression. His work has elucidated how targeting the BRD4-HOXB13 co-regulated transcriptional networks with novel dual activity bromodomain kinase inhibitors suppressed androgen-independent prostate cancer growth.
Collaborator
Jiqiang Yao Ph.D. Collaborator
Jiqiang has been a key collaborator and co-author with Dr. Mahajan. His collaboration has been instrumental in performing integrative bioinformatic analysis to uncover BRD4-HOXB13 and AR-HOXB13 gene signatures in primary and metastatic prostate cancers.