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Chen He, pdf - (che<at>lunenfeld.ca)

chenVEGF, an essential endothelial mitogen, not only plays important roles in development of vasculatures and physiological angiogenesis but also it involves in many pathological events, in particular, neo-angiogenesis within tumors. As anti-VEGF signaling becomes a means of treatment to multiple types of cancers, corroborative evidence has shown that anti-VEGF therapy alone is inefficient and does not improve clinical outcomes.  Ironically, the hypoxia microenvironment that is caused by inhibition of the VEGF axis and the consequent deficiency of productive perfusion,  leads to metabolic changes of tumors and increased malignancy e.g. invasion and metastasis. My research primarily focuses on molecular profiling of primary and metastatic tumors that have been challenged by our VEGF traps, in order to understand, first of all, how primary tumor cells adapt to the hypoxia condition and secondly how and what anti-VEGF therapy exerts its influence on the heterogeneity of primary tumors. In addition, various epithelium-derived tumors acquire VEGF autocrine signaling pathways. However, the functions of this autocrine loop to tumorigenesis remain unknown.  Furthermore, tumor vasculature is a key component of tumor microenvironment. Interactions between tumor endothelial cells and tumor cells are involved in many aspects of tumor prognosis e.g. metastatic dissemination of tumor cells.  Investigating the tumor specific VEGF autocrine and deciphering the communications between tumor and its vasculature are my long-term interests of research.