1. Drug development for anti-YAP transcription function. First discovery in invertebrate, Hippo signaling pathway revealed tremendous physiological and pathological functions in mammals. Our preliminary data showed it also functions in traumatic brain injury. This is promoting us to explore how Hippo pathway is regulated in nervous system and to develop potential drug for therapy. Although Hippo pathway has been established, the small molecular inhibitors or activators for clinical applications are still lacking. Thus, we will try to screen more small molecules to target the key components of Hippo pathway. 

2． In vivo functional screen to identify lung cancer growth relating genes. Cancer therapy is in the precise medicine era, whereas over 50% lung cancer patients can’t identify the driver genes. This suggests us more mechanisms resulting in cancer need to be discovered. So, we developed the CRISPR-cas9 dependent in vivo screen to seek new genes related to lung cancer initiation and progression.

3. The function of Mechanical tension and cytoskeleton involved structure in Cancer. Pervious data revealed cells not only sense biochemical signal from the environment, but also the physical signal, such as mechanical tension. It needs to be clarified whether mechanical tension is crucial for cancer growth and metastasis. We will combine genetics and cell biology tools to study the potential function of tension related structures or processes in mice model.