Category: Members

Steve Plouffe His research focus is on intercellular regulation of the Hippo-YAP signaling pathway. Steve earned his B.A. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from UC Berkeley and worked as a Research Associate at NGM Biopharmaceuticals before coming to UCSD as a graduate student.   Education 2005-2009 B.A. Molecular and Cellular Biology / Music, UC Berkeley 2010-2012 Research Associate, NGM Biopharmaceuticals 2012-present Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences - Pharmacology   Selected Publications For more publications and an updated list, please see Steve's Google Scholar page.   ...

Toshiro Moroishi is currently focused on understanding the regulation of the Hippo signaling pathway and YAP/TAZ transcription co-activators in development and tumorigenesis. He obtained his Ph.D. in Medical Science from Kyushu University in Japan. His Ph.D. work focused on understanding the regulation of iron metabolism by ubiquitin-proteasome pathway as well as their implication in human disease.   Education 2002-2008 M.D., Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan 2008-2012 Ph.D. in Medical Science, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan 2012-2013 Postdoctoral research in Medical Institute of Bioregulation, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan (Laboratory of Dr. Keiichi Nakayama) 2013-present Postdoctoral research fellow in Department of Pharmacology and Moores Cancer Center, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, USA (Laboratory of Dr. Kun-Liang Guan)   Selected Publications The emerging roles of YAP and TAZ in cancer Moroishi, T., Hansen, C.G. & Guan, K.L . Nat. Rev. Cancer 15, 73-9 (2015). A YAP/TAZ-induced feedback mechanism regulates Hippo pathway homeostasis. Moroishi, T. et al. Genes Dev. 29, 1271-84 (2015). HERC2 Targets the Iron Regulator FBXL5 for Degradation and Modulates Iron Metabolism. Moroishi,...

Zhipeng Meng is focusing on the mechanisms of LATS1/2 activation.   Education 2002-2006 B.S. School of Life Sciences, University of Science & Technology of China. Hefei, Anhui, China 2006-2012 Assistant Research Specialist Ph.D. .City of Hope Graduate School of Biological Sciences. Duarte, California 2013-present Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology, UC San Diego, San Diego, California, (Mentor: Kun-Liang Guan)   Selected Publications Find Zhipeng on Google Scholar.   MAP4K family kinases act in parallel to MST1/2 to activate LATS1/2 in the Hippo pathway Zhipeng Meng, Toshiro Moroishi, Violaine Mottier-Pavie, Steven W. Plouffe, Carsten G. Hansen, Audrey W. Hong, Hyun Woo Park, Jung-Soon Mo, Wenqi Lu, Shicong Lu, Fabian Flores, Fa-Xing Yu, Georg Halder & Kun-Liang Guan Nature Communications 6 (8357). miR-194 is a marker of hepatic epithelial cells and suppresses metastasis of liver cancer cells in mice Z Meng, X Fu, X Chen, S Zeng, Y Tian, R Jove, R Xu, W Huang Hepatology 52 (6), 2148-2157. FXR regulates liver repair after CCl4-induced toxic injury Z Meng, Y Wang, L Wang, W Jin, N Liu, H Pan, L Liu, L Wagman,...

Kimberly Lin is a graduate student studying the regulation of the Hippo signaling pathway and YAP/TAZ transcription co-activators in development and tumorigenesis.   Education 2007-2011 Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, B.S. University of California, Los Angeles, CA 2014-present Graduate Student. Department of Biomedical Sciences. University of California San Diego. San Diego, California   Selected Publications FLT3 D835 Mutations Confer Differential Resistance to Type II FLT3 Inhibitors. Kimberly C. Lin*, Catherine C. Smith*, Adrian Stecula, Andrej Sali, Neil P. Shah. (accepted, Leukemia). Characterizing and Overriding the Structural Mechanism of the Quizartinib-resistant FLT3 “Gatekeeper” F681L Mutation with PLX3397 Catherine C. Smith, Chao Zhang, Kimberly Lin, Elisabeth Lasater, Ying Zhang, Evan Massi, Lauren E. Damon, Matthew Pendleton, Ali Bashir, Robert Sebra, Alexander Perl, Andrew Kasarskis, Rafe Shellooe, Garson Tsang, Heidi Carias, Ben Powell, Elizabeth A. Burton, Bernice Matusow, Jiazhong Zhang, Wayne Spevak, Prabha N. Ibrahim, Mai H. Le, Henry H. Hsu, Gaston Habets, Brian L. West, Gideon Bollag and Neil P. Shah. Cancer Discov. 2015 Apr 6. pii: CD-15-0060. [Epub ahead of print] Overcoming Myelosuppression Due to Synthetic Lethal Toxicity in FLT3-Targeted...

Audrey Hong earned her B.A. degree in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley. She worked in Academia Sinica, Taiwan before becoming a graduate student in UCSD. Audrey is currently working on elucidating the regulatory mechanisms of the Hippo pathway.   Education: 2008-2012 B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology Emphasis in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. UC Berkeley. Berkeley, CA 2013-present Graduate Student. Department of Biomedical Sciences. University of California San Diego. San Diego, California   Selected Publications: Disease implications of the Hippo-YAP pathway. Plouffe SW, Hong AW, Guan KL. Trends in Molecular Medicine. (2015). doi: 10.1016/j.molmed.2015.01.003...

Vivian Fu is a graduate student working on nutrient-sensing within mTORC1.   Education: 2010-2014 Biochemistry and Cell Biology, B.A. Music, B.A. Rice University, TX 2014-present Graduate Student. Department of Biomedical Sciences. University of California San Diego. San Diego, California   Selected Publications: Coming soon...