Title: Exploring bi-directional signaling in tumor microenvironment by proteomic approaches

Speaker： Dr. Ruijun Tian

             Associta Professor, Department of Chemistry at South  University of Science and Technology of China

Time： 1:00pm May 25th 2015

Address： Rm 101, East wing of Old Chemistry Building, Peking Unversity 

Chair：  Prof. Luhua Lai,  Center for Quantitative Biology 

Abstract：

          Cell-cell interactions are often mediated by protein molecules expressed by one cell that are recognized by specific receptors present on neighboring cells. This intercellular communication activates specific signaling pathways through the induction of dynamic posttranslational modifications such as phosphorylation and protein-protein interactions. Mass spectrometry-based proteomics have been proven to be a robust approach for characterizing dynamic protein phosphorylation and interaction on a global scale. However, proteomic studies of signaling networks under conditions with physiological cell-cell contact have been challenging. In this talk, I will present our recent development of unbiased quantitative proteomic approaches toward this end: (1) novel phosphoproteomic approach for characterizing bi-directional intercellular signaling in pancreatic tumor microenviroment; (2) combinatorial proteomic approach for studyingCD28-mediated costimulatory signaling in T cells under physiological antigen presenting cells-based stimulation. Our work established a generally applicable strategy for studying cell-cell communication and provided valuable resources for systematically understanding dysfunctional signaling networks in tumor microenvironment in a context closer to physiological condition than was previously possible.