Rongze Lu, PhD

Assistant Professor
Neurological Surgery
Research Description: 

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Our lab focuses on identifying molecular mechanisms mediating immune suppression and evasion in brain tumors, with the goal of developing novel immunotherapeutics for these diseases. My recent research identified that protein phosphatase 2A negatively regulated T cell and macrophage mediated anti-tumor immunity, and further demonstrated that pharmacological inhibition of PP2A synergized with PD-1 blockade in multiple type of resistant tumors including glioblastoma. Based on those findings, a Phase I/II trial (NCT03027388) of PP2A inhibitor in recurrent glioblastoma is ongoing.

Primary Thematic Area: 
Immunology
Secondary Thematic Area: 
Cancer Biology & Cell Signaling
Research Summary: 
Identify underlying mechanisms of brain tumor immunosuppression and evasion, with the goal to develop novel immunotherapies for brain cancer.

Websites

Publications: 

PP2Ac Deficiency Enhances Tumor Immunogenicity by Activating STING-Type I Interferon Signaling in Glioblastoma

Cancer research

Mondal I, Das O, Sun R, Gao J, Yu B, Diaz A, Behnan J, Dubey A, Meng Z, Eskandar E, Xu B, Lu R*, and Ho W* corresponding author

PP2A/STRN4 Negatively Regulates STING-Type I Interferon Signaling in Tumor Associated Macrophages (in press)

Journal of Clinical Investigation

Ho WS*, Mondal I*, Xu B*, Das O*, Sun R, Chiou P, Lyu J, Li L, Cai X, Tahmasebinia F, Wu C Y-J, Wu Z, Matsui W, Lim M, Meng Z, Lu RO* corresponding author

Pantothenate kinase 2 interacts with PINK1 to regulate mitochondrial quality control via acetyl-CoA metabolism.

Nature communications

Huang Y, Wan Z, Tang Y, Xu J, Laboret B, Nallamothu S, Yang C, Liu B, Lu RO, Lu B, Feng J, Cao J, Hayflick S, Wu Z, Zhou B

Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Macrophage, and Microglia in Brain Cancer.

Frontiers in cell and developmental biology

Lu RO, Ho WS