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Qi Chen, PhD

Qi Chen portrait
Associate Professor, Pharmacology, Toxicology & Therapeutics
qchen@kumc.edu

Professional Background

Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry, Sun Yet-sen University, China 2003
Postdoctoral Fellow, NIDDK / NIH , 2008

Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, University of Kansas Medical Center, 2008-2017

Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, University of Kansas Medical Center, 2017- present


Research

Overview

Basic and translational research in cancer medicine, cancer drug development and mechanism studies with small molecules, with current focus on cancer epithelial-mesenchymal transition and cancer stem cells.

Enrichment of stem-like cancer cells (CSCs) in pancreatic cancer has been proposed to root the poor prognosis and treatment outcomes of this disease. The presence of CSCs is highly associated with cancer cell epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) that contributes to chemo resistant tumors prone to metastasis and recurrence. It is well accepted that EMT is an important initial step during the complicated process of cancer cell dissemination and metastasis. Therefore, inhibiting cancer cell EMT and CSC has emerged to be an important strategy for ultimate elimination of cancer cell populations.

Publications
  • Dong, R, Polireddy, K, Wu, X, Chen, P, Wang, T, Xu, L, Chen, Q. 2019. An RNA binding protein, HuR, in pancreatic cancer EMT, metastasis, and CSC. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics
  • Polireddy, K, Dong, R, Reed, G, Yu, J, Chen, P, Williamson, S, Violet, P., C, Pessetto, Z, Godwin, A., K, Fan, F, Levine, M, Drisko, J., A, Chen, Q. 2017. High Dose Parenteral Ascorbate Inhibited Pancreatic Cancer Growth and Metastasis: Mechanisms and a Phase I/IIa study.. Scientific reports, 7 (1), 17188
  • Chen, Q, Espey, M., G, Sun, A., Y, Lee, J., H, Krishna, M., C, Shacter, E, Choyke, P., L, Pooput, C, Kirk, K., L, Buettner, G., R, Levine, M. 2007. Ascorbate in pharmacologic concentrations selectively generates ascorbate radical and hydrogen peroxide in extracellular fluid in vivo.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104 (21), 8749-54
  • Ma, Y, Chapman, J, Levine, M, Polireddy, K, Drisko, J, Chen, Q. 2014. High-dose parenteral ascorbate enhanced chemosensitivity of ovarian cancer and reduced toxicity of chemotherapy.. Science translational medicine, 6 (222), 222ra18
  • Ma, Y, Chen, P, Drisko, J, Godwin, A., F, Chen, Q. 2020. Pharmacologic Ascorbate Induces “BRCAness” and Enhances Effects of Poly(ADP-Ribose) Polymerase Inhibitors against BRCA1/2 Wild-type Ovarian Cancer. Oncology Lett. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2020.11364