# Dissect regulation of RNA translation in human cancers

> **NIH NIH R00** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $249,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Studies have shown that RNA translation plays important regulatory roles during oncogenic transformation,
cancer progression and metastasis. Targeting RNA translation for cancer therapy has enormous potential.
However, translational regulation during oncogenesis in the genome-wide basis remains largely unexplored, as
most current cancer research still focuses on transcriptome. Here I propose to use an integrated experimental
and computational genomics approach to systematically dissect the regulation of RNA translation and the
functional roles of translation factors in human cancers. Aim 1 will examine genome-wide regulation of mRNA
translation during oncogenic transformation mediated by various oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. The
result will reveal novel mechanisms and functional targets of translational regulation underlying oncogenic
transformation and cancer heterogeneity. Aim 2 will study the functional roles of translation factors and their
genome-wide targets during oncogenic transformation. The study will provide mechanistic insights for targeting
translation factors for cancer therapy. Aim 3 will characterize the regulation of RNA translation and gene co-
expression networks of translation factors in human cancer patient samples using proteomics and
transcriptomics data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. This analysis will show how the
regulatory mechanisms discovered using the cancer cell line models in Aims 1 and 2 contribute to in vivo
cancer progression and heterogeneity. Taken together, the proposed experiments will systematically dissect
the functional roles and genome-wide targets of translational regulation and translation factors in human
cancers. The results will provide a novel mechanistic basis for targeting RNA translation in cancer therapy.
While I have received extensive interdisciplinary training in computational genomics, cancer biology and
molecular biology, the K99/R00 award will help me develop experimental skills, including implementing next-
generation sequencing technologies based and molecular biology techniques. The research will take
advantage of the unique and complementary expertise of the principal investigator, my mentors (Dr. Kevin
Struhl at Harvard Medical School and Dr. Aviv Regev at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard) and my
collaborator (Dr. Jean Zhao at Dana Farber Cancer Institute). Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute
provide me with an exceptional training environment. The proposed research will facilitate my career
development to be an independent scientific investigator working at the forefront of cancer systems biology
and developing novel therapeutic strategies for human cancers.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9843127
- **Project number:** 5R00CA207865-05
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Zhe Ji
- **Activity code:** R00 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $249,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-01-01 → 2021-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9843127

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9843127, Dissect regulation of RNA translation in human cancers (5R00CA207865-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9843127. Licensed CC0.

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