Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey
Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor of Molecular Biology
Targeting metastatic breast cancer at the nexus of cancer progression and immune response.
Metastatic breast cancer (MBC)—when breast cancer spreads to other organs—is incurable and responsible for the majority of breast cancer deaths. Dr. Kang and his team identified a protein, metadherin (MTDH), that is generated by many breast tumors and its presence predicts poor outcome for patients. The team found that MTDH promotes both metastasis and chemo-resistance in cancer cells and helps tumors evade the immune system, making it a promising target for therapy. Dr. Kang’s team will explore this further to see if blocking MTDH could help promote an anti-tumor response by the immune system. The findings from this research may pave the way toward a new immunotherapy approach for metastatic breast cancer.
The team developed a drug to target MTDH and found that it dramatically inhibits breast cancer progression and metastasis by enhancing immune cell infiltration into laboratory tumor models. The team also tested their MTDH drug in combination with anti-PD-1 therapy, a type of immunotherapy, and the two worked well together to suppress breast cancer progression. Recently, the team discovered that MTDH facilitates tumor cell escape from anti-tumor immune response through regulation of T cells, a type of cancer fighting immune cell. Furthermore, this regulatory effect is contingent upon MTDH being in both T cells and host cells.
In the coming year, Dr. Kang will explore metabolic regulators of T cell function, which in turn can suppress the immune response to metastatic breast cancer. The findings from Dr. Kang’s research may provide novel insights into regulation of the immune system in response to the growth and spread of metastatic breast cancer and pave the way for a new immunotherapy approach for advanced disease.
Yibin Kang is Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor of Molecular Biology and American Cancer Society Research Professor at Princeton University. He graduated from Fudan University in Shanghai in 1995. After completing his graduate study at Duke in 2000, Dr. Kang became an Irvington Institute postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Joan Massagué at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and pioneered a functional genomic approach to elucidate mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis. Dr. Kang joined the faculty of Princeton University as an Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology in 2004. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2010 and to Endowed Professor in 2012.
Dr. Kang’s research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis. His laboratory discovered new genes that promote recurrence, metastasis and chemoresistance of breast cancer, delineated tumor-stromal interactions that are essential for metastatic growth, and identified novel regulators with dual functions in mammary gland cell fate determination and tumor progression. Dr. Kang has published over 100 original articles in leading journals including Cell, Cancer Cell, and Nature Medicine. Dr. Kang’s outstanding achievements have been recognized by many awards, including a Department of Defense Era of Hope Scholar Award (2006), the 2011 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Sciences (2011), the AACR Award for Outstanding Achievements in Cancer Research (2012), the Fidler Innovation Award from the Metastasis Research Society (2014) and the Fuller Albright Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (2014). Dr. Kang was elected as President of the Metastasis Research Society for the 2016-2018 term.
2014
The Pink Agenda Award in Memory of Samantha Shoobs
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