Qi Cao, PhD
Associate Professor, Urology
Research Program
Cancer-Focused Research
I have been working on prostate cancer and epigenetics for over 15 years. My major contributions to the field of prostate cancer and other cancer research include:(1) identification of PcG protein histone methyltransferase EZH2 as a biomarker for aggressive breast and prostate cancer; (2) characterization of EZH2 as an oncogene by repressing multiple tumor suppressors in breastand prostate cancer; (3) discovery of genomic loss of miR-101 in breast and prostate cancer and the upregulationof EZH2 by miR-101 in cancer; and (4) the coordinated regulation between Polycomb Repressive Complexes 1 and 2 in breast and prostate cancer progression. My work has demonstrated EZH2 and BMI1 as valuable therapeutic targets in cancer, and several pharmaceutical companies are developing EZH2- or BMI1- specific inhibitors for cancer therapy.