Biography:

 

Dr. Yemin Wang is an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Wang obtained his PhD degree in Experimental Medicine at the University of British Columbia and pursued postdoctoral studies in cancer biology at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Centre and cancer genetics at the University of British Columbia. In 2021, Dr. Wang started his independent research program, studying how genetic mutations drives the development and progression of rare aggressive ovarian and endometrial cancers to inform targeted therapeutics. The overarching theme of his research is to dissect mechanisms by which genetic and epigenetic events drive malignant transformation and subsequent progression to a poorly differentiated and highly aggressive state that inform the development of prevention and targeted therapeutics. Two major types of cancers that his team studies include SWI/SNF-mutant cancers and DICER1 syndrome-associated cancers. Utilizing drug screen, proteomics and functional genomics, his team identified multiple epigenetic and metabolic reprogramming events that can be exploited for therapeutic development in ovarian and endometrial cancers driven by the complete loss of the SWI/SNF complex activities. His lab has also developed first of its kind genetic engineered mouse models for studying DICER1 syndrome-associated cancers, including those arising from the gynecologic tract. His research has led to numerous publications in prestigious journals, such as Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, Nature Cancer, Nature Cell Biology, eLife, Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, NPJ Precision Oncology, Journal of Pathology, etc.