Based at the VCHRI Jack Bell Research Centre, this laboratory is dedicated to understanding the molecular mechanisms behind the development of skin cancers. We are investigating exactly what happens at the molecular level when a skin lesion or growth becomes cancerous. Which genes are being turned on or turned off? Why does the growth pattern become disordered? Why it is invasive? By knowing which genes are functioning abnormally in skin cancer, we are also determining new targets for innovative therapies of metastatic melanoma, an advanced cancer which responds poorly to conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Cases of melanoma that are not detected early enough cannot be cured by surgery, and the five-year survival rate drops to less than 50%. Unfortunately melanoma is very resistant to conventional cancer therapies, and therefore the laboratory is looking at a number of strategies to get melanoma to respond to systemic therapy. To date we have had success in identifying new target molecules and genes for treating malignant melanoma.

Lab Leader

Dr. Gang Li

Lab Location

Jack Bell Research Centre Rooms 412 & 436 Vancouver General Hospital

Staff

Dr. Vincent Ho, Dr. Marco Garate

Fellows

Dr. Guangdi Chen, Dr. Aijaz Wani

students

Yabin Cheng, Mehdi Jafarnejad, Jun Li, Hanyang Lin, Daven Tai, Ronald Wong

Major Investigative Technologies Utilized

Tissue microarray, Host-cell-reactivation assay, apoptosis assays, adenovirus, molecular cloning, immunofluorescence, Flow cytometry, DNA sequencing.

Recent Publications

Lin LH, Wong RPC, Martinka M, Li G. Loss of SNF5 Expression Correlates with Poor Patient Survival in Melanoma. Clin. Cancer Res. (in press) Yu G, Wang J, Chen Y, Wang X, Pan J, Li G, Jia Z, Li Q, Yao JC, Xie K. Overexpression of phosphorylated mammalian target of rapamycin predicts lymph node metastasis and prognosis of Chinese patients with gastric cancer. Clin. Cancer Res. 15:1821-1829, 2009. » more publications...

Agencies Involved

National Cancer Institute of Canada, Canadian Institute of Health Research, Canadian Dermatology Foundation, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council, Canadian Melanoma Foundation