Qing Chen, MD, PhD

Qing Chen, Ph.D

Associate Professor

Research Program

Lab Overview

Brain metastasis is the most ominous form of cancer relapse. Unfortunately, most cancer therapies have shown limited efficacy in brain metastasis. To form metastatic tumors, cancer cells need to survive and adapt to the microenvironment in distal organs. Due to the unique brain microenvironment, we consider brain metastasis as a different disease from extracranial tumors. Chen lab studies the complex interplay between the metastatic cancer cells and the unique brain cells. Our idea is that once we know how the brain microenvironment facilitates metastasis, we can focus our efforts on stopping it. Moreover, we are trying to understand how the standard cancer therapies change the brain stromal cells to facilitate the metastatic outgrowth. Overall, our research proposal aims to yield real and actionable targets on the brain microenvironment, instead of on cancer cells. The ultimate goal is to identify new therapeutic targets and increase the therapeutic efficacy in brain metastasis patients.

  • In Virto
  • In Virto Brain
  • Cranial chamber/IVM observation of the brain metastatic lesion
  • Cancer Discovery 2019
  • Brain metastasis PDX
  • Nature Communications 2023

    Educational Background

    • Ph.D, Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, State University of New York at Buffalo, 2006
    • M.D., Clinical Medicine, Capital University of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China, 1997

    Memberships

    • 2003- American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)

    Honors & Awards

    • Melanoma Research Program, U.S. Department of Defense, Idea Award 2023
    • Tara Miller Melanoma Foundation Team Science Grant 2023
    • V Foundation Award 2020
    • Legacy of Hope Merit Award 2019
    • The Jayne Koskinas Ted Giovanis Foundation for Health and Policy Award 2018
    • Susan G. Komen Career Catalyst Award 2017
    • The NCI Transition Career Development Award (K22CA181470-01) 2015

    People

    Research Interests

    • Brain metastasis
    • Tumor microenvironment
    • Breast cancer Melanoma
    • Novel therapeutic targets
    • Preclinical brain metastasis models

    Misc

    Ongoing/Future Projects

    • Immune microenvironment in brain metastasis
    • Therapeutic responses in brain metastasis associated stromal cells
    • Preconditioned brain microenvironment by primary tumors
    • Spatial and temporal interactions between cancer and brain stromal cells
    • Brain metastasis immunotherapies
    • Brain metastasis PDX

    Selected Publications

    1. Hlavaty SI, Salcido KN, Pniewski KA, Ma W, Kannan T, Mukha D, Liu Q, Kossenkov A, Chen Q, Zachary T. Schug ZT. ACSS1-dependent acetate utilization rewires mitochondrial metabolism to support AML and melanoma tumor growth and metastasis. Cell Reports 43, 114988. 2024
    2. Ma W*, Oswald J, Angulo AR, Chen Q*. Tmem119 is Downregulated in a Subset of Brain Metastasis-associated Microglia. BMC Neuroscience 25, 6, 2024. [*Shared corresponding-author]
    3. Ou L, Shujing Liu S, Wang H, Guo Y, Guan L, Shen L, Luo R, Elder DE, Huang AC, Karakousis G, Miura J, Mitchell T, Lynn Schuchter L, Amaravadi R, Flowers A, Mou H, Yi F, Guo W, Ko J, Chen Q, Tian B, Herlyn M, Xu X. Patient-derived melanoma organoid models facilitate the assessment of immunotherapies. eBioMedicine 92: 104614, 2023
    4. Ma W, Oliveira-Nunes MC, Ke Xu K, Kossenkov A, Hayden J, Chen Q. Type I Interferon Activation in Astrocytes Facilitates Brain Metastasis via CCL2-Mediated Myeloid cell Recruitment. Nature Communications 14:2632, 2023
    5. Stejerean-Todoran I., Gimotty PA, Watters A, Brafford P, Krepler C, Godok T, Li H, Bonilla del Rio Z, Zieseniss A, Dörthe M. Katschinski DM, Sinem M. Sertel SM, Silvio O. Rizzoli SO, Garman B, Katherine L. Nathanson KL, Xu X, Chen Q, Oswald JH, Lotem M, Mills BM, Davies MA, Schön MP, Bogeski I, Herlyn M, Vultur A. A distinct pattern of growth and RAC1 signaling in melanoma brain metastasis cells. Neuro-Oncology noac212, 2022
    6. Parris JLD, Barnoud T, Leu JI, Leung JC, Ma W, Kirven N, Kossenkov AV, Liu Q, George DLG, Weeraratna AT, Chen Q, Murphy ME (2021). HSP70 inhibition blocks adaptive resistance and synergizes with MEK inhibition for the treatment of NRAS mutant melanoma. Cancer Research Communications 1:17, 2021
    7. Zou Y, Watters A, Cheng C, Perry CE, Xu K, Alicea GM, Parris JLD, Baraban E, Ray P, Nayak A, Xu X, Herlyn M, Murphy ME, Weeraratna AT, Schug ZT, Chen Q. Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids from Astrocytes Activates PPAR Gamma Signaling in Cancer Cells to Promote Brain Metastasis. Cancer Discovery 9:1720, 2019
    8. Basu S, Gnanapradeepan K, Barnoud T, Kung CP, Tavecchio M, Scott J, Watters A, Chen Q, Kossenkov AV, Murphy ME. Genes Dev. 32:230, 2018
    9. Chen Q*, Boire A*, Jin X, Valiente M, Er EE, Lopez-Soto A, Jacob L, Patwa R, Shah H, Xu K, Cross JR, Massagué J. Carcinoma-astrocyte gap junctions promote brain metastasis by cGAMP transfer. Nature 533:493, 2016. [*Shared first-author]
    10. Valiente M, Obenhauf A, Jin X, Chen Q, Zhang XH, Lee D, Chaft JE, Kris MG, Huse JT, Brogi E, Massagué J. Serpins shield brain metastatic cells from death signals and vascular detachment. Cell 156:1002, 2014
    11. Chen Q, Zhang XH, Massagué J. VCAM1 mediates survival of breast cancer cells on arrival in the lungs. Cancer Cell 20:538, 2011.