Dihua Yu

Our laboratory performs basic and translational cancer research at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC). Our laboratory functions as a bridge connecting basic and translational cancer research to important issues in cancer patient care. We focus on tackling unmet medical challenges in the new era of personalized cancer therapy. First, we are decoding cancer metastasis, especially immune- and metabolic-dysregulations in brain metastasis, and developing effective therapies based on mechanistic understanding. Second, we are exploring how tumor cells and tumor microenvironment (TME) co-evolve to induce resistance to conventional-, targeted- and immuno- therapies; designing strategies to enhance patients’ responses to anti-cancer therapies. Third, we are testing novel immunoprevention strategies for prevention and early intervention of cancers and metastasis. We also study cell signaling and epigenetic dysregulations in cancer progression, metastasis, and resistance to therapies. Our research employs multidisciplinary approaches and various preclinical models, e.g., two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) cell culture models, double and triple co-cultures, organoids, transgenic, knockout, and humanized mouse models, cancer cell xenograft and patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. We validate the human relevance of our findings by analyzing tissue and plasma specimens from patients, as well as big data (genome, epigenome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, spatial profiling, etc.) of human cancers and clinical outcome data of patients and by incorporating deep learning and AI framework.