Ming You, MD, PhD, joined the institute in May 2021. He is currently the principal investigator or the co-principal investigator for multiple NIH grants that are focused on genetics and chemoprevention of lung cancer. Some ongoing projects in the You laboratory are the identification of candidate lung cancer susceptibility genes by capture-sequencing of targeted regions or genes, identification of frequent somatic mutations in lung adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas by exome sequencing, and identification of those somatic mutations predictive of clinical outcome of stage I NSCLC by SNP genotyping.
A major focus of research in my laboratory is to evaluate compounds for their ability to inhibit the growth of cancer. We have been investigating the effects of natural products such as green tea, ginseng and a Chinese herbal medicine called Antitumor B, which have shown promise as anti-cancer agents. In addition, we are researching the anti-cancer properties of other compounds such as honokiol, rapamycin, bexarotene, a vitamin A analog, and of agents that target specific driver genes, such as inhibitors of EGFR, MEK, AKT, and PI3K, etc.
In addition to the contributions described above, my group has significant expertise in determining genetic alterations and molecular pathway changes using next-generation sequencing technology. One focus of research in my laboratory is to identify lung cancer susceptibility genes by mouse genetics, large human familial lung cancer cohorts, and whole genome/whole exome/RNA & miRNA sequencing. Recently, my research team has identified PARK2, a gene associated with Parkinson disease, as a major lung cancer susceptibility gene for a subset of familial lung cancer patients. More than 230 manuscripts have been published over my career.