Min Yu, PhD

Shandong Medical University, China, MBBS (MD equivalent), 1997

Peking University Health Science Center, China, Master in Neurology, 2000

SUNY Stony Brook and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, PhD, 2006

Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Postdoctoral Fellow, 2014

Dr. Yu's laboratory is interested in understanding the genetic, epigenetic and microenvironmental regulations of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that lead to initiation of cancer metastasis in various organs. The overarching goal is to be able to utilize CTCs from blood samples of cancer patients as a non-invasive “liquid biopsy” to inform the prognostic and therapeutic interventions for metastasis.

Dr. Yu obtained her PhD in Genetics from SUNY Stony Brook under the guidance of Dr. Senthil Muthuswamy at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, investigating transcriptomic changes of mammary epithelial cells during three-dimensional morphogenesis growing in Matrigel in comparison to monolayer cultures. She subsequently obtained training in the field of CTCs and cancer metastasis in the laboratory of HHMI investigator Dr. Daniel Haber at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School. She established her independent laboratory in 2014 at University of Southern California and obtained tenure promotion as Associate Professor in 2021. Since January 2023, she became an Associate Professor at Department of Pharmacology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore.

Lab website: http://www.minyulab.org/

Circulating tumor cells, Cancer metastasis, Brain metastasis, Breast cancer, Liquid Biopsy

Iriondo O, Mecenas D, Li Y, Chin CR, Thomas A, Moriarty A, Marker A, Wang YJ, Hendrick H, Amzaleg Y, Ortiz V, MacKay M, Dickerson A, Lee G, Harotoonian S, Benayoun BA, Smith A, Mason C, Torres ETR, Klotz R, Yu M. Hypoxic memory mediates prolonged tumor intrinsic type I interferon suppression to promote breast cancer progression. Cancer Research 2024, July 11.

Kang DS*, Moriarty A*, Wang YJ, Thomas A, Hao J, Unger BA, Klotz R, Ahmmed S, Amzaleg Y, Martin S, Vanapalli S, Xu K, Smith A, Shen K, Yu M. Ectopic expression of a truncated isoform of hair keratin 81 in breast cancer alters biophysical characteristics to promote metastatic propensity. Advanced Science 2024, Feb; 11(5): e2300509.

Kamal M, Wang YJ, Plummer S, Dickerson A, Yu M. An image-based identification of aggressive breast cancer circulating tumor cell subtypes. Cancers 2023, 15(10), 2669

Teng T, Kamal M, Iriondo O, Amzaleg Y, Luo C, Thomas A, Lee G, Hsu C, Nguyen JD, Kang I, Hicks J, Smith A, Sposto R, Yu M. N-Acetyl-L-cysteine promotes ex vivo growth and expansion of single circulating tumor cells by mitigating cellular stress responses. Molecular Cancer Research, 2021; 19 (3): 441-450.

Klotz R, Thomas A, Teng T, Iriondo O, Li L, Restrepo-Vasslli S, Han J, Wang A, Izadian N, Mackay M, Moon BS, Ganesan SK, Lee G, Kang DS, Walmsley CS, Press M, Lu W, Lu J, Juric D, Bardia A, Hicks J, Salhia B, Smith A, Yu M. Circulating tumor cells exhibit metastatic tropism and reveal brain metastasis drivers. Cancer Discovery. 2020; 10(1):86-103.

Kamal M, Saremi S, Klotz R, Iriondo O, Amzaleg Y, Chairez Y, Tulpule V, Lang JE, Kang I, Yu M. PIC&RUN: An integrated assay for the detection and retrieval of single viable circulating tumor cells. Scientific Reports. 2019;9 (1):17470.

Ortiz V, Yu M. Analyzing Circulating Tumor Cells One at a Time. Trends in Cell Biology. 2018, 28(10):764-775.

Iriondo O, Liu Y, Lee G, Elhodaky M, Jimenez C, Li L, Lang J, Wang P, Yu M. TAK1 mediates microenvironment-triggered autocrine signals and promotes triple-negative breast cancer lung metastasis. Nature Communications. 2018 May 18;9(1):1994.

Jordan NV, Bardia A, Wittner BS, Benes C, Ligorio M, Zheng Y, Yu M, Sundaresan TK, Licausi JA, Desai R, O'Keefe RM, Ebright RY, Boukhali M, Sil S, Onozato ML, Iafrate AJ, Kapur R, Sgroi D, Ting DT, Toner M, Ramaswamy S, Haas W, Maheswaran S, Haber DA. HER2 expression identifies dynamic functional states within circulating breast cancer cells. Nature. 2016, 537(7618):102-106.

Aceto N, Bardia A, Miyamoto DT, Donaldson MC, Wittner B, Spencer JA, Yu M, Pely A, Engstrom A, Zhu H, Brannigan BW, Kapur R, Stott SL, Shioda T, Ramaswamy S, Ting DT, Lin CP, Toner M, Haber DA, Maheswaran S. Circulating tumor cell clusters are oligoclonal precursors of breast cancer metastasis. Cell. 2014, 158(5):1110-22.

Yu M, Bardia A, Aceto N, Bersani F, Madden MW, Donaldson MC, Desai R, Zhu H, Comaills V, Zheng Z, Stojanov P, Brachtel E, Sgroi D, Kapur R, Shioda T, Ting DT, Ramaswamy S, Getz G, Iafrate JA, Benes C, Toner M, Maheswaran S, Haber DA. Ex vivo culture of circulating breast tumor cells for individualized testing of drug susceptibility. Science. 2014, 345(6193):216-20.

Yu M*, Bardia A*, Wittner BS, Stott SL, Smas ME, Ting DT, Isakoff SJ, Ciciliano JC, Wells MN, Shah AM, Concannon KF, Donaldson MC, Sequist LV, Brachtel E, Sgroi D, Baselga J, Ramaswamy S, Toner M, Haber DA, Maheswaran S. Circulating breast tumor cells exhibit dynamic changes in epithelial and mesenchymal composition. Science. 2013, 339(6119): 580-584. *Equal contributions.

Yu M*, Ting DT*, Stott SL, Wittner BS, Ozsolak F, Paul S, Ciciliano JC, Smas ME, Winokur D, Gilman AJ, Ulman MJ, Xega K, Contino G, Alagesan B, Brannigan BW, Milos PM, Ryan DP, Sequist LV, Bardeesy N, Ramaswamy S, Toner M, Maheswaran S, Haber DA.  RNA sequencing of circulating tumor cells implicates non-canonical WNT signaling in pancreatic cancer metastasis. Nature. 2012, 487(7408): 510-3. *Equal contributions.

Yu M, Lin G, Arshadi N, Kalatskaya I, Xue B, Haider S, Nguyen F, Boutros PC, Elson A, Muthuswamy LB, Tonks NK, Muthuswamy SK. Expression profiling during mammary epithelial cell 3D morphogenesis identifies PTPRO as a novel regulator of morphogenesis and ErbB2 mediated transformation. Mol. Cell Biol. 2012, 32(19):3913-24. 

Yu M, Stott S, Toner M, Maheswaran S, Haber DA. Circulating tumor cells: approaches to isolation and characterization. J Cell Biol. 2011, 192(3): 373-82.

Yu M, Smolen GA, Zhang J, Wittner B, Schott BJ, Brachtel E, Ramaswamy S, Maheswaran S, Haber DA. A developmentally regulated inducer of EMT, LBX1, contributes to breast cancer progression. Genes Dev. 2009, 23(15):1737-42.