Zhipeng Lu, PhD

Dr. Lu [Layton Family Fellow of the Damon Runyon-Sohn Foundation Pediatric Cancer Fellowship Award] is developing new methods for direct analyses of RNA structures and RNA-RNA interactions in living cells, which remain a major technical challenge. RNA helicases and RNA binding proteins interact with and remodel RNA structures to coordinate all aspects of RNA metabolism, and mutations in these proteins lead to many cancers such as medulloblastoma brain tumors. Using these novel methods, his goal is to dissect the mechanisms of RNA helicases and RNA binding proteins in regulating RNA metabolism and to identify druggable targets for cancer treatment.