Teng Lab
Principal Investigator: Yong Teng
Institution: Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
PROJECT SUMMARY Oral cancer is a highly aggressive and devastating malignancy with a poor prognosis at the advanced stage, resulting in ~300,000 deaths each year worldwide. Currently no effective targeted therapies are available for oral cancer; thus, there remains an urgent need to develop new therapeutic options to prevent and treat oral cancer. ADP-ribosylation factor 1 (Arf1) is a member of the Ras superfamily of small GTPases playing a major role in vesicular trafficking. Arf1 is highly expressed and hyperactivated in oral cancer, where it functions as an oncogenic driver to favor cancer development and progression. As a critical step in the functional cycle of Arf GTPases is their activation by guanine-nucleotide exchange factors (ArfGEFs), interrupting the protein-protein interaction between Arf1 and its specific Arf1GEFs remains an attractive strategy to block Arf1 signaling. Recently, we have discovered a novel Arf1 inhibitory compound 10b (AI10b) that can structurally mimic the intrinsic autoinhibitory segment of Arf1GEFs to selectively block Arf1 activation without affecting other Arf family members. AI10b exhibits a superior anticancer activity in oral cancer cells than…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R01DE033433-03: Targeted Arf1 inhibition to enhance immune response in oral cancer (2026)
- 5R01DE033691-03: Inhibiting mitochondrial complex I to improve cetuximab efficacy in oral cancer (2026)
- 5R01DE033691-02: Inhibiting mitochondrial complex I to improve cetuximab efficacy in oral cancer (2025)
- 5R01DE033433-02: Targeted Arf1 inhibition to enhance immune response in oral cancer (2025)
- 1R01DE033433-01: Targeted Arf1 inhibition to enhance immune response in oral cancer (2024)
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