We sincerely welcome Prof. Dr. Bingbing Li from Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, United States, to join the Editorial Board of Advances in Cells. Dr. Bingbing Li is interested in the interface between biology and chemistry, using innovative chemical tools to dissect the complexity of cancer biology with the goal of identifying novel cancer therapeutics. In one project, she focuses on the molecular understanding of clear cell sarcoma of soft tissue (CCSST) driven by EWSR1-ATF1/CREB fusion and identification of novel therapeutics for CCSST. The fusion protein EWS-ATF1/CREB is constitutively driving CREB/ATF1-dependent gene transcription. However, EWSR1-ATF1/CREB is predicted to be an intrinsically disordered protein and it is a recalcitrant target for small molecules. To overcome this challenge, she developed and implemented a proteomics screening strategy to identify alternative actionable targets that are critical for EWSR1-ATF1-mediated gene transcription. From this screening, she discovered that protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) is a novel EWSR1-ATF1 binding partner. Using both genetic and chemical methods, she further validated that PRMT5 is a novel druggable vulnerability in CCSST. Specifically, she found that clinical stage PRMT5 inhibitor JNJ-64619178 showed promising anti-CCSST activity in vitro and in vivo. In another project, she is using a combination of chemical biology and cell biology to investigate nuclear lamins. Nuclear lamins are type V nuclear intermediate filament proteins and were thought to be undruggable. She recently discovered the first small molecule called LBL1 that binds to nuclear lamins and uncovered a previously unrecognized role of lamin A in regulating homologous recombination repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSB). She capitalizes on this discovery to investigate the nuclear lamina-ome composition under physiologically relevant conditions using LBL1 and its chemical probes. We appreciate Prof. Dr. Bingbing Li for her participation and support.
May 22, 2024