Jianfei Qi, PhD

2006                Ph.D., Biochemistry, Toronto University

2010                Postdoctoral Fellow,  Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

2013                Staff Scientist, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

My research interests aim to understand the molecular mechanisms governing prostate cancer progression and therapeutic resistance. My background is in prostate cancer biology, ubiquitination, epigenetics and transcriptional gene regulation.The experimental approaches used in my laboratory include molecular cell biology, biochemistry,  transgenic mouse prostate cancer models (PTEN or Hi-Myc), and various genome-wide approaches (e.g. RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq PRO-seq, Hi-ChIP, et al). We have also established stable collaboration with the experts in prostate cancer pathology or systems biology. Our studies reveal key roles for histone demethylase, ubiquitin ligases and oncogenic transcription factors in prostate cancer progression, and further understanding their mechanisms is critical towards identifying new targets and developing new rationale therapies for the advanced prostate cancer. 

transcriptional gene regulation, epigenetics, signaling transduction, histone demethylase, ubiquitin ligase, androgen receptor, c-Myc, prostate cancer, castration-resistant prostate cancer, DNA damage response

Jeon HY, Pornour M, Ryu H, Khadka S, Xu R, Jang J, Li D, Chen H, Hussain A, Fazli L, Gleave M, Dong X, Huang F, Wang Q, Barbieri C, Qi J. (2023). SMAD3 promotes expression and activity of the androgen receptor in prostate cancer. Nucleic Acids Research. 51, 2655-2670. 

Xu S, Fan L, Jeon HY, Zhang F, Cui X, Mickle M, Peng G, Hussain A, Fazli L, Gleave M, Dong X, Qi J. (2020). p300-mediated acetylation of histone demethylase JMJD1A prevents its degradation by ubiquitin ligase STUB1 and enhances its activity in prostate cancer. Cancer Research. 80, 3074-3087.

Fan L, Zhang F, Xu S, Cui X, Hussain A, Fazli L, Gleave M, Dong X, Qi J. (2018). Histone demethylase JMJD1A promotes alternative splicing of AR variant 7 (AR-V7) in prostate cancer cells. PNAS. 115, E4584-93. 

Fan L, Peng G, Sahgal N, Ladan F, Gleave M, Zhang Y, Hussain A, and Qi J. (2016). Regulation of c-Myc expression by the histone demethylase JMJD1A is essential for prostate cancer cell growth and survival. Oncogene. 35, 2441-2452.

Qi J, Tripathi M, Mishra R, Sahgal N, Fazil L, Ettinger S, Placzek WJ, Claps G, Chung LW, Bowtell D, Gleave M, Bhowmick N, and Ronai Z. (2013). The E3 ubiquitin ligase Siah2 contributes to castration-resistant prostate cancers by regulation of androgen receptor activity. Cancer Cell. 23, 332-346

Qi J, Nakayama K, Cardiff RD, Borowsky AD, Williams R, Krajewski S, Carpenter P, Mercola D, Bowtell D, and Ronai Z. (2010). Concerted activity of HIF and FoxA2 regulates formation of neuroendocrine prostate tumors and neuroendocrine phenotype of human metastatic prostate cancers. Cancer Cell 18, 23-38.