Junyan Tao, PhD

Research Assistant Professor of Pathology, Division of Experimental Pathology

Dr. Tao is a member of the Division of Experimental Pathology.

Research Interests

Currently, my research is focused on liver cancer development in murine mouse models through hydrodynamic tail vein injections with sleeping beauty transposase system and CRISPR system. I have generated several different hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) models involving various cell signal pathways related to liver cancer, such as Hippo/Yap, Wnt/beta-catenin, ATK/PI3K/mTOR, Met, NEF2L2, Myc, FGF19, et al. Based on various HCC models, we try to explore the crosstalk among these pathways involving regulating liver cancer development. Meanwhile, we are testing novel, targeted therapies for liver cancer treatment and combination therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors due to the heterogeneity of HCC.  Our main goal is to look for effective therapeutic clinical strategies based on the different mouse model.

Representative Publications
  • Hurley EH, Tao J, Liu S, Krutsenko Y, Singh S, Monga SP. Inhibition of Heat Shock Factor 1 Signaling Decreases Hepatoblastoma Growth via Induction of Apoptosis. Am J Pathol. 2023 Feb;193(2):148-160. PMID: 36336065.
  • Tao, J., Y. Krutsenko, A. Moghe, S. Singh, M. Poddar, A. Bell, M. Oertel, A. D. Singhi, D. Geller, X. Chen, A. Lujambio, S. Liu, and S. P. Monga. Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 and beta-Catenin Coactivation in Hepatocellular Cancer: Biological and Therapeutic Implications. Hepatology. 2021 Aug;74(2):741-759. PMID: 33529367.
  • Zhang, S., J. Zhang, K. Evert, X. Li, P. Liu, A. Kiss, Z. Schaff, C. Ament, Y. Zhang, M. Serra, M. Evert, N. Chen, F. Xu, X. Chen, J. Tao, D. F. Calvisi, and A. Cigliano. The Hippo Effector Transcriptional Coactivator with PDZ-Binding Motif Cooperates with Oncogenic beta-Catenin to Induce Hepatoblastoma Development in Mice and Humans.  Am J Pathol. 2020 Jul;190(7):1397-1413. PMID: 32283103.
  • Qiao, Y., J. Wang, E. Karagoz, B. Liang, X. Song, R. Shang, K. Evert, M. Xu, L. Che, M. Evert, D. F. Calvisi, J. Tao, B. Wang, S. P. Monga, and X. Chen. Axis inhibition protein 1 (Axin1) Deletion-Induced Hepatocarcinogenesis Requires Intact beta-Catenin but Not Notch Cascade in Mice.  Hepatology. 2019 Dec;70(6):2003-2017. PMID: 30737831.
  • Molina, L., H. Yang, A. O. Adebayo Michael, M. Oertel, A. Bell, S. Singh, X. Chen, J. Tao, and S. P. S. Monga. mTOR inhibition affects Yap1-beta-catenin-induced hepatoblastoma growth and development. Oncotarget.  2019 Feb 19;10(15):1475-1490. PMID: 30863496 .
  • Zhan N, Michael AA, Wu K, Zeng G, Bell A, Tao J, Monga SP. The Effect of Selective c-MET Inhibitor on Hepatocellular Carcinoma in the MET-Active, β-Catenin-Mutated Mouse Model. Gene Expr. 2018 May 18;18(2):135-147. PMID: 29409568.
  • Heng Wu, Junyan Tao, Xiaolei Li, Tianpeng Zhang, Shenjun Fan, Clifford J. Steer, Lei Zhao, Zhi Zeng, Na Zhan, Jun Xiong, Yao Wang, Lei Zhang, Xin Chen, Guisheng Song MicroRNA-206 prevents the development of hepatocellular carcinoma via modulating cMet expression. Hepatology. 2017 Jul 17. doi: 10.1002/hep.29374.
  • Liu P, Ge M, Hu J, Li X, Che L, Sun K, Cheng L, Huang Y, Pilo MG, Cigliano A, Pes GM, Pascale RM, Brozzetti S, Vidili G, Porcu A, Cossu A, Palmieri G, Sini MC, Ribback S, Dombrowski F, Tao J, Calvisi DF, Chen L, Chen X. A functional mTORC1 signaling is indispensable for c-myc driven hepatocarcinogenesis. Hepatology. 2017 Mar 30. doi: 10.1002/hep.29183. [Epub ahead of print]
  • Chen ZH, Yu YP, Tao J, Liu S, Tseng G, Nalesnik M, Hamilton R, Bhargava R, Nelson JB, Pennathur A, Monga SP, Luketich JD, Michalopoulos GK, Luo JH. MAN2A1-FER Fusion Gene Is Expressed by Human Liver and Other Tumor Types and Has Oncogenic Activity in Mice. Gastroenterology. 2017 Feb 25. pii: S0016-5085(17)30004-5. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2016.12.036. [Epub ahead of print].
  • Junyan Tao, Rong Zhang, Sucha Singh, Minakshi Poddar, Emily Xu, Michael Oertel, Xin Chen, Shanthi Ganesh, Marc Abrams, Satdarshan P. Monga. Targeting β-catenin in hepatocellular cancers induced by co-expression of mutant β-catenin and K-Ras in mice. Hepatology. 2016 Dec 16. doi: 10.1002/hep.28975.
  • Junyan Tao, Emily Xu, Yifei Zhao, Sucha Singh, Xin Chen, Xiaolei Li, Gabrielle Couchy, Jessica Zucman-Rossi, Maria Chikina, Satdarshan P. S. Monga. Modeling a Human HCC Subset in Mice Through Co-Expression of Met and Point-Mutant β-Catenin. Hepatology, 2016 Apr 20. doi: 10.1002/hep.28601.
  • Junyan Tao, Junfang Ji, Xiaolei Li, Heng Wu, Xin W Wang, Diego F. Calvisi, Guisheng Song, and Xin Chen. Distinct anti-oncogenic effect of various microRNAs in different mouse models of liver cancer. Oncotarget. 2015,30,6(9):6977-88.
  • Junyan Tao, Diego F. Calvisi, Sarangarajan Ranganathan, Antonio Cigliano, Lili Zhou, Sucha Singh, Lijie Jiang, Biao Fan, Luigi Terracciano, Sorin Armeanu-Ebinger, Silvia Ribbacki, Frank Dombrowski,Matthias Evert, Xin Chen, Satdarshan P. S. Monga. Activation of β-Catenin and Yap1 in Human Hepatoblastoma and Induction of Hepatocarcinogenesis in Mice. Gastroenterology, 2014 ,147(3):690-701