Rong Shao

Research Interests: 

Tumor Angiogenesis

Tumor angiogenesis, the new vasculature formation from pre-existing blood vessels, is a fundamental process required for tumor growth, and is initially triggered by elevated angiogenic factors that are mainly derived from tumor cells and tumor stroma cells. We recently have found that a secreted glycoprotein named YKL-40 has the ability to promote tumor vascular endothelial cell angiogenesis; thus promoting tumor progression and metastasis. Elevated YKL-40 may serve as a biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of breast cancer. A neutralizing anti-YKL-40 antibody can block tumor development and angiogenesis, suggestive of therapeutic means for inhibition of advanced cancers. In addition, we are interested in tumor cell-associated vascularization known as vasculogenic mimicry (VM), an alternative vascularization that is appreciated to play an important role in tumor development and progression of glioblastoma, one of the extremely aggressive and poorest prognostic brain tumors. Glioblastoma stem-like cells (GSCs) are found to participate in VM via transdifferentiation into vascular pericytes/smooth muscle cells. Identification of key molecules and their mechanisms that regulate tumor angiogenesis and VM will offer immense value for cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy.