Zhi-Chun Lai

Signal Transduction, Growth Control, and Cancer Genetics

My research focuses on a growth-inhibitory Hippo signaling pathway that appears to be conserved across species. The main goal is to understand how tissue growth and organ size are regulated by Hippo signaling during animal development and how its disruption can lead to cancer formation.

Appropriate cell number and organ size are determined by coordinated cell growth, cell proliferation and apoptosis. Hippo signaling provides an important mechanism to negatively regulate tissue and organ development by inhibiting cell proliferation and promoting apoptosis. By focusing on a key component of the Hippo pathway, Mob as tumor suppressor (Mats), my laboratory is interested in understanding:

• how Mats functions to activate Wts/Lats protein kinase
• the significance of Mats subcellular localization in mediating Hippo signaling
• mechanisms by which Mats/Wts/Hpo are regulated by upstream signals

We are also interested in addressing how alteration of Hippo signaling activity is associated with tumorigenesis in humans.

Read more about my research

Selected Publications

Zhao, B., Kim, J., Ye, X., Lai, Z.-C. and Guan, K.-L. (2009). Both TEAD binding and WW domains are required for the growth stimulation and oncogenic transformation activity of YAP. Cancer Research 69: 1089-1098.

Yuan, Y., Lin, S., Zhu, Z., Zhang, W., and Lai, Z.-C. (2009). The mob as tumor suppressor gene mats1 is required for growth control in developing zebrafish embryos. Int. J. of Dev. Biol. 53: 525-533.

Ye, X., Nikolaidis, N., Nei, M. and Lai, Z.-C. (2009). Evolution of the mob gene family. Open Cell Signalling J. 1: 1-11.

Zhao, B., Ye, X., Yu, J., Li, L., Li, W., Li, S., Yu, J., Lin, J. D., Chinnaiyan, A. M., Lai, Z.-C. and Guan, K.-L. (2008). TEAD mediates YAP dependent gene induction and growth control. Genes Dev. 22: 1962-1971.

Shimizu, T., Ho, L.-L. and Lai, Z.-C., (2008). Themob as tumor suppressor gene is essential for early development and regulates tissue growth in Drosophila. Genetics 178: 957-965.

Yang, Y., Gupta, V., Ho, L.-L., Zhou, B., Fan, Q., Zhu, Z., Zhang, W., and Lai, Z.-C. (2008). Both upstream and downstream intergenic regions are critical for the mob as tumor suppressor gene activity in Drosophila. FEBS Letters 582: 1766-1770.

Zhao, B., Wei, X. Li, W., Udan, R. S., Yang, Q., Kim, J., Xie, J., Ikenoue, T., Yu, J., Li, L., Zheng, P., Ye, K., Chinnaiyan, A., Halder, G., Lai, Z.-C. and Guan, K.-L. (2007). Inactivation of YAP oncoprotein by the Hippo pathway is involved in cell contact inhibition and tissue growth control. Genes Dev. 21: 2747-2761.

Wei, X., Shimizu, T., and Lai, Z.-C. (2007). Mob as tumor suppressor is activated by Hippo kinase in growth inhibition in Drosophila. EMBO J. 26: 1772-1781.

Lai, Z.-C. Wei, X., Shimizu, T., Ramos, E., Rohrbaugh, M., Nikolaidis, N., Ho, L.-L., and Li, Y. (2005). Control of cell proliferation and apoptosis by Mob as tumor suppressor, Mats. Cell 120: 675-685.