Molecular Biologist
Leader, Angiogenesis Research Laboratory
Southern Research Institute
2000 Ninth Avenue South
Birmingham, AL 35205
205-581-2552
Email: qu@southernresearch.org
Dr. Zhican Qu received her Ph.D. in biophysics and biochemistry at Johns Hopkins University and obtained her postdoctoral training at Washington University School of Medicine. Before her career in life sciences, Dr. Qu obtained B.S. and M.S. degrees in Physics at Tsinghua University in China. Dr. Qu joined Southern Research Institute in 2001 and currently leads the Angiogenesis Research Laboratory and serves as an adjunct faculty member in the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Dr. Qu's laboratory focuses on studies of molecular mechanisms of pathological angiogenesis and the effects of tumor-stroma interactions on tumor progression, metastasis and treatment resistance.
Imbalance in the angiogenesis process contributes to numerous malignant, inflammatory, and immune disorders. In adults, blood vessels remain stable and endothelial cells usually are not activated. During the pathological angiogenic process, such as in tumors, endothelial cells become abnormally activated, leading to new blood vessel formation. Tumors cannot grow beyond 2 mm in diameter without angiogenesis to bring nutritional support. Targeting signaling pathways responsible for endothelia activation associated with pathological conditions is an approved strategy of therapeutic development for the treatment of cancer and other human diseases.
Tumor growth is not determined solely by the tumor cells but is governed by interactions between tumor cells and host stromal cells, including endothelial cell activation and fibroblastic stroma response. Tumor stroma profoundly influence many steps of tumor progression by supporting cancer cell proliferation, metastasis, and tumor angiogenesis and promoting anticancer drug resistance. In many human cancers, such as breast, prostate, and colon, the stroma comprise the majority of the tumor mass, in some cases accounting for over 90% of the tumor mass. Dr. Qu's lab has been interested in studying tumor angiogenesis and tumor microenvironments with both in vitro and in vivo approaches being employed in exploring possibilities of targeting tumor angiogenesis and stroma compartments for effective cancer therapeutic development.