Jason Cheng-Hsuan Chiang Lab

The research programs in our laboratory investigate genetic alterations, biomarker development, immunohistochemistry, genomic and copy number alterations, signaling pathways, and transcriptional drivers of these tumors. Through our work, we hope to better understand tumor development and potential factors in treatment resistance. 

We use both fresh and formalin-fixed materials for tumor sequencing, epigenetic profiles, transcriptomics, proteomics, phosphoproteomics, and glycomics. Our multidisciplinary research approach involves close collaboration with clinical colleagues to leverage data regarding treatment outcomes. This data, combined with the results of multi-omics techniques, may illuminate the unique characteristics of each tumor to illuminate candidates for clinical trials and targeted interventions. Several of our findings on tumors are featured in WHO Classification of Tumours of the Central Nervous System, 5^th Edition, a resource used by clinicians and scientists around the world.

In addition to clinical colleagues, we collaborate extensively with data scientists at St. Jude, particularly with our colleagues in the Department of Computational Biology. Together, our teams recently harnessed the power of computational bioinformatics to identify a virus in a particular oncogene that triggered tumor development. The discovery of this new tumor-initiating mechanism has pointed to the possibility that, in some cases, pathologists and clinicians may need to look for a virus in the genome that activates a particular oncogene.

Emerging technologies will soon pave the way for a more in-depth understanding of each tumor, its transcription vulnerability, signaling pathway, and mechanisms that drive tumor development beyond genetic alteration. Such valuable insights into individual tumors will ultimately allow for the development of therapies for specific pathways, rather than the tumor itself, which will help minimize therapeutic side effects and lead to better outcomes for patients.