University of South Florida

Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program at the

	Jiandong Chen, Ph.D. Professor in the Department of Oncologic Sciences Member-in-Residence of the Moffitt Cancer Center E-mail:Jiandong.Chen@moffitt.org Phone: 813-745-6822

Training
Undergraduate: Department of Biology, Zhongshan University, China Ph.D.: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh Postdoc: Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University

Research Interests

Over 50% of human tumors have mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor gene. We are interested in studying how p53 is normally regulated and how it is inactivated in tumors. The MDM2 and MDMX oncogenes are major regulators of p53 activity. We are investigating the regulation of MDMX and MDM2 by ubiquitination and phosphorylation, the roles of MDMX in regulating p53 response to DNA damage and ribosomal stress, and the role of MDMX in tumor formation. We are also trying to develop inhibitors against MDM2 and MDMX as therapeutic agents. A second area of research addresses the role of SirT1 in stress response in tumor cells, regulation of SirT1 expression by E2F1, and the role of SirT1 phosphorylation.

Selected Publications

1. Lihong Chen, Changgong Li, Yu Pan, and Jiandong Chen. (2005). Regulation of p53-MDMX interaction by casein kinase 1 alpha. Mol Cell Biol. 25:6509-6520.
2. Chuangui Wang, Alexey Ivanov, Lihong Chen, William J. Fredericks, Ed Seto, Frank J. Rauscher III, and Jiandong Chen. (2005). MDM2 interaction with nuclear corepressor KAP-1 contributes to p53 inactivation. EMBO J. 24:3279-3290.
3. Lihong Chen, Daniele Gilkes, Yu Pan, William S. Lane, and Jiandong Chen. (2005). ATM and Chk2-dependent phosphorylation and degradation of MDMX contributes to p53 activation after DNA damage. EMBO J. 24:3411-3422.
4. Cynthia LeBron, Lihong Chen, Daniele M. Gilkes, and Jiandong Chen.  (2006). Regulation of MDMX nuclear import and degradation by Chk2 and 14-3-3. EMBO J. 25:1196-1206.
5. Chuangui Wang, Lihong Chen, Xinghua Hou, Zhenyu Li, Neha Kabra, Yihong Ma, Shino Nemoto, Toren Finkel, Wei Gu, W. Douglas Cress, and Jiandong Chen. (2006). Interactions between E2F1 and SirT1 regulate apoptotic response to DNA damage. Nature Cell Biology. 8:1025-1031.
6. Baoli Hu, Daniele M Gilkes, Bilal Farooqi, Said M. Sebti, and Jiandong Chen. (2006). MDMX overexpression prevents p53 activation by the MDM2 inhibitor Nutlin. J Biol Chem. 281:33030-33035.
7. Daniele Gilkes, Lihong Chen, and Jiandong Chen. (2006). MDMX Regulation of p53 Response to Ribosomal Stress. EMBO J. 25:5614-5625.
8. Daniele Gilkes, Jiandong Chen. (2007). Distinct roles of MDMX in the regulation of p53 response to ribosomal stress. Cell Cycle. 6:151-155.
9. Chuangui Wang, Frank J. Rauscher III, W. Douglas Cress, and Jiandong Chen. (2007). Regulation of E2F1 function by the nuclear co-repressor KAP1. J Biol Chem. 282:29902-29909.
10. Baoli Hu, Daniele M. Gilkes, and Jiandong Chen. (2007). Efficient p53 activation and apoptosis by simultaneous disruption of binding to MDM2 and MDMX. Cancer Research. 67:8810-8817.