TUMOR SUPPRESSORS, GENOMICS AND PROTEOMICS
Our goal is to develop new noninvasive, blood based biomarkers as a cost-effective screening tool, as well as a companion tool to be used in conjunction with other diagnostic procedures using protein array technologies. This bench to bedside project will help clinicians 1) for more accurate and specific diagnoses, 2) for monitoring the intervention efficiency, 3) for the opportunity to develop surrogate endpoints for following therapy and predict recurrence and metastasis in the case of cancer, graft rejection in kidney transplantation and diagnosis for Posttraumatic stress disorder patients. We have identified biomarkers in these three areas, published several papers and presented the work in many national and international meetings. Using a systems biology strategy, our proteomic approaches can provide an important new opportunity to connect the genome to the proteome. In collaboration with TAGC genome center in our department, we are developing proteogenomic analysis to enable new advances in the disease biology, diagnostics and therapeutics.