Dr Chunhua (Nick) Wan mainly employs genome-scale CRISPR-Cas9 loss-of-function screening to investigate Wnt/β-catenin pathway, a central pathway leading to colorectal cancer initiation and progression. Using this technique, we may clarify the mechanism underlying Wnt/β-catenin signaling transduction in whole human genome, and identify novel therapy targets for colorectal cancer.

Dr Wan finished his PhD in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Peking Union Medical College of Tsinghua University, China, in 2011, where he investigated the function of a Rhomboid intramembrane protease and its role in colorectal cancer development.

Selected publications

• Wan C, Mahara S, Sun C, Doan A, Chua HK, Xu D, Bian J, Li Y, Zhu D, Sooraj D, Cierpicki T, Grembecka J, Firestein R (2021) Genome-scale CRISPR-Cas9 screen of Wnt/β-catenin signaling identifies therapeutic targets for colorectal cancer. Sci Adv, 7(21):eabf2567.

• Hu B, Hua L, Ni W, Wu M, Yan D, Chen Y, Lu C, Chen B *, Wan C* (2017) Nucleostemin/GNL3 promotes nucleolar polyubiquitylation of p27^kip1 to drive hepatocellular carcinoma progression. Cancer Lett 388:220-229. (*Corresponding author)

• Wan C, Gong C, Zhang H, Hua L, Li X, Chen X, Chen Y, Ding X, He S, Cao W, Wang Y, Fan S, Xiao Y, Zhou G, Shen A (2016) β2-adrenergic receptor signaling promotes pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) progression through facilitating PCBP2-dependent c-myc expression. Cancer Lett 373:67-76.

• Wan C, Hou S, Ni R, Lv L, Ding Z, Huang X, Hang Q, He S, Wang Y, Cheng C, Gu XX, Xu G, Shen A (2015) MIF4G domain containing protein regulates cell cycle and hepatic carcinogenesis by antagonizing CDK2-dependent p27 stability. Oncogene 34:237-245.

• Wan C, Fu J, Wang Y, Miao S, Song W, Wang L (2012) Exosome-related multi-pass transmembrane protein TSAP6 is a target of rhomboid protease RHBDD1-induced proteolysis. PLoS One 7:e37452.