Post-Transcriptional Regulation
The central focus of our research is investigating the dysregulation of mRNA binding proteins (mRBPs) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our recent work identified Negative Elongation Factor E (NELFE) as an oncogenic RBP that is associated with poor clinical outcome in more than 1200 clinical specimens. We identified the novel mechanisms in which NELFE enhances the oncogene MYC to promote tumorigenesis. We are currently interested in how NELFE interact with and regulate their RNA targets through modular domains such as low complexity sequences (LCS) and RNA recognition motifs (RRMs).