Yinu Wang, PhD

2024 Early Career Investigator Grant

Northwestern University
Redox Balance Regulates Stemness-Associated Gene Transcription in Ovarian Cancer

Project Summary
Characterizing key regulatory factors in ovarian cancer stem cells will lead to improved understanding of key steps in cancer initiation and finding new treatments for deadly ovarian cancer. Our preliminary studies indicate that enhanced oxidative defense is required for maintaining stemness of ovarian cancer cells. A DNA organization regulator, the histone linker protein H1.0, was upregulated in response to oxidative stress status in cancer stem cells. This proposal will discover the functions of H1.0 in regulating stemness in ovarian cancer, with the goal of discovering novel mechanisms involved in resistance to chemotherapy.

Bio
Dr. Yinu Wang is an Assistant Professor (Research) of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern University. Yinu received her BS in Pharmacy from Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, an MS in Biology from Western Kentucky University, and obtained her PhD in Pharmacology from Indiana University. Her postdoctoral fellowship was completed in Dr. Daniela Matei’s laboratory at Northwestern University, where she was subsequently appointed as research faculty. As a graduate student working with Dr. Ken Nephew, she studied the mechanisms contributing to the emergence of chemoresistant recurrent tumors and focused on the functions of cancer stem cells (CSCs) driving tumor relapse. This work defined key signaling pathways contributing to the maintenance of ovarian CSCs. She laid the groundwork for investigating the epigenetic targeting of ovarian CSCs by using DNMT methyltransferase inhibitors. At Northwestern University, her postdoctoral work identified several novel vulnerabilities associated with chemoresistance and stemness in ovarian cancer cells, including key genes and signaling pathways regulating oxidative defense and lipid metabolism. Dr. Wang’s current research focuses on defining epigenetic signatures and the 3D chromatin nanoarchitecture of ovarian CSCs. She links the physical properties of chromatin in ovarian CSCs with epigenetic mechanisms regulating gene transcription to discover specific vulnerabilities of OCSCs. A special focus of her research is to investigate the role of adaptation to increased oxidative stress in regulating chromatin organization and maintaining the transcriptional activity of genes involved in stemness and chemoresistance. The long-term goal of her research is to develop tools to prevent recurrent and chemoresistant ovarian cancer, and to improve the quality of life and overall survival of women with ovarian cancer.