Translational Medicine
Open Access
ISSN: 2161-1025
ISSN: 2161-1025
Min Li
Keynote: Transl Med
The completion of the Human Genome Project (HGP) opened up many opportunities for basic and translational medicine and research. It is now possible to predict the patient outcome by looking at their genomes. The genomics studies an individual's gene structure and the interaction of genes with the environment, and has the potential to change the current standard practice of medicine. The new concept, �translational medicine�, or �personalized genomic medicine�, include the use of genomic information to improve the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases such as cancer. However, the challenges are how to identify the best therapeutic targets and to how deliver the best medicine to treat individual patients. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult human cancers to treat due to lack of early detection and high resistance to conventional therapy. The overall survival rate is less than 5%, which has not improved over the last decade. Therefore, it is important to identify novel therapeutic targets in pancreatic cancer that could lead to more effective treatment for this malignant disease. Our gene and genomic profiling studies have indicated that zinc transporter ZIP4 is overexpressed in human pancreatic cancer and regulates cancer cell growth, tumor progression and survival, which assigns a new and important role for ZIP4. Preclinical studies have shown that silencing of ZIP4 by shRNA significantly decreased tumor growth and increased the survival rate. Those results suggest that ZIP4 is a novel therapeutic target for human cancer, and holds great promise for ZIP4-based translational medicine.
Min Li got his PhD from Emory University in 2002. He then moved on to Baylor College of Medicine and started his career in cancer research as an Assistant Professor in 2004. He is currently Associate Professor and Director of Cancer Research Program at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. His research interests include pancreatic cancer, brain tumor, and microRNA. He group is the first one to identify ZIP4 as a novel molecular target in human cancer. He has published more than 95 papers and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Translational Medicine, and editorial board member of many other journals. He is a permanent member of the NIH/NCI study section, and his research is funded by both NIH and private foundation grants.