Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program

The Yu Chen Lab

Yu Chen, MD, PhD

Associate Professor

The major goal of my laboratory is to understand how critical transcription factors mediate prostate cancer oncogenesis. Prostate cancers uniquely harbor very few mutations in well-known driver oncogenes (e.g., RAS, BRAF, etc.). Instead, they are characterized by aberrations in transcription factors, including the androgen receptor (AR) and ETS family transcription factors. These oncogenic transcription factors regulate a transcriptional program that determines cellular lineage, specifies the responses to external stimuli, and contributes to the oncogenic cellular context in prostate cancer. Our long-term goal is to generate an integrative understanding of how transcription factors normally guide the prostate lineage determination and how their deregulation leads to cancer. In addition, using biochemistry and genetic screens, we are pursuing ways to target the activity of these transcription factors that can lead to drug discovery.

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Featured News

MSK Scientists Identify New — and Very Common — Subtype of Prostate Cancer

The findings could pave the way toward more targeted treatments for the disease.

Publications Highlights

Tang F, Xu D, Wang S, Wong CK, Martinez-Fundichely A, Lee CJ, Cohen S, Park J, Hill CE, Eng K, Bareja R, Han T, Liu EM, Palladino A, Di W, Gao D, Abida W, Beg S, Puca L, Meneses M, de Stanchina E, Berger MF, Gopalan A, Dow LE, Mosquera JM, Beltran H, Sternberg CN, Chi P, Scher HI, Sboner A, Chen Y, Khurana E. Chromatin profiles classify castration-resistant prostate cancers suggesting therapeutic targets. Science. 2022 May 27;376(6596):eabe1505. doi: 10.1126/science.abe1505. Epub 2022 May 27. PubMed PMID: 35617398; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9299269.

Han H, Wang Y, Curto J, Gurrapu S, Laudato S, Rumandla A, Chakraborty G, Wang X, Chen H, Jiang Y, Kumar D, Caggiano EG, Capogiri M, Zhang B, Ji Y, Maity SN, Hu M, Bai S, Aparicio AM, Efstathiou E, Logothetis CJ, Navin N, Navone NM, Chen Y, Giancotti FG. Mesenchymal and stem-like prostate cancer linked to therapy-induced lineage plasticity and metastasis. Cell Rep. 2022 Apr 5;39(1):110595. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110595. PubMed PMID: 35385726.

Mazzu YZ, Liao YR, Nandakumar S, Jehane LE, Koche RP, Rajanala SH, Li R, Zhao H, Gerke TA, Chakraborty G, Lee GM, Nanjangud GJ, Gopalan A, Chen Y, Kantoff PW. Prognostic and therapeutic significance of COP9 signalosome subunit CSN5 in prostate cancer. Oncogene. 2022 Jan;41(5):671-682. doi: 10.1038/s41388-021-02118-4. Epub 2021 Nov 20. PubMed PMID: 34802033.

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People

Yu Chen, MD, PhD

Associate Professor

Physician-scientist Yu Chen studies the role of transcription factors that are critical for prostate cancer development.
MD, Weill Cornell Medical College
PhD, The Rockefeller University

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Members

Dana Schoeps

Research Technician

Hongsu Wang

Research Scholar

Lab Alumni

Emily Giff

Research Technician

Makhzuna Khudoynazarova
Research Technician

Amanda Moore
Graduate Research Assistant

Cheng Qian

Graduate Research Assistant

Leili Ran, BS — Leili Ran
Investment Analyst at Superstring Capital, New York, NY

Shangqian Wang
Graduate Research Assistant

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

Louis V. Gerstner Young Investigator Award, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (2011)
Young Investigator Award, Prostate Cancer Foundation (2011)
Physician Research Training Award, Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program (2010)
Advanced Fellowship Award, Charles H. Revson Foundation (2009)
K08 Clinical Scientist Development Award, National Institutes of Health (2009)

Clinical Scholars Award, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (2008)
Young Investigator Award, American Society of Clinical Oncology (2007)
Clinical Cancer Research Award, American Association for Cancer Research/Bristol-Myers Squibb (2007)

Open Positions

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Get in Touch

646-888-3350

Lab Phone

Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Yu Chen discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

Merck & Co Inc.
Professional Services and Activities
Myovant Sciences
Equity

Oric Pharmaceuticals
Equity; Intellectual Property Rights

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].

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