Dr. Jian Kuang

Regular Member

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Department of Experimental Therapeutics

Research Interests:

• Cell-cycle control
• Signal transduction
• Alix functions and regulation

The central theme of my research is to understand the molecular mechanism that controls cell proliferation and transformation.  One of the major components in the program is aimed at identifying crucial missing links in the regulatory system that control the G2/M transition in the eukaryotic cell cycle, including previously unrecognized kinases and phosphatases that regulate Cdc25 activation, enzymes that generate and eliminate the mitosis-specific epitope recognized by the monoclonal antibody MPM-2 and the non-Cdc2 components of maturation promoting factor activity.

The other focus of my research is to understand the functions and regulations of a multifunctional scaffold protein called Alix, which is critically involved in endosomal sorting, retroviral budding, cytokinesis, apoptosis, actin cytoskeleton assembly, cell adhesion and extracellular matrix assembly. Besides, we also study the functions and regulations of Alix-related protein HD-PTP for its malignancy-inhibitory role.

A tutorial in my laboratory would provide basic biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology skills in using cultured mammalian cells to study cell proliferation and transformation.

Selected Publications:

Zhou X, Pan S, Sun L, Corvera J, Lin SH, Kuang J (2008) The HIV-1 p6/EIAV p9 docking site in Alix is autoinhibited as revealed by a conformation-sensitive anti-Alix monoclonal antibody. Biochem J. 2008 Epub doi:10.1042/BJ20080642. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18476810?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Pan S, Wang R, Zhou X, Kloc M, Corvera J, Koomen J, Kobayashi R, Sifers R, Gallick GE, Lin SH, Kuang J (2008) Extracellular Alix Regulates Integrin-Mediated Cell Adhesions And Extracellular Matrix Assembly. EMBO J. In Press.

Wang R, He G, Nelman-Gonzalez M, Ashorn CL, Gallick GE, Stukenberg PT, Kirschner MW, Kuang J (2007) Regulation of Cdc25C by ERK-MAP kinases during the G2/M transition. Cell. 128, 1119-113. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17382881?ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Pan S, Wang R, Zhou X, He G, Koomen J, Kobayashi R, Sun L, Corvera J, Gallick GE, Kuang J (2006) Involvement of the adaptor protein Alix in actin cytoskeleton assembly. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2006 285, 34640-34650. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16966331?ordinalpos=3&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Additional Publications

Program Affiliations:

Program in Experimental Therapeutics

Program in Genes and Development