This study investigates the impact of Indigenous American-like ancestry on acute lymphoblastic leukemia risk in Hispanic/Latino children, finding no global association but significant local haplotype effects.

Human Genetics and Genomics Advances · Oct 25, 2025Peer-reviewedGenetic & Genomic Medicine

RBM39 degrader invigorates natural killer cells to eradicate neuroblastoma despite cancer cell plasticity

Shivendra Vikram Singh, Jie Fang, Hongjian Jin, Lee-Ann Van de Velde, Andrew Cortes, Jiani Chen, Sivaraman Natarajan, Evon Poon, Qiong Wu, Christopher L. Morton, Mary A. Woolard, Waise Quarni, Jacob A. Steele, Jon P. Connelly, Liusheng He, , Jun J.J. Yang

This study shows that targeting RBM39 with indisulam promotes natural killer cell activity and eradicates neuroblastoma regardless of cellular state plasticity.

Nature Communications · Sep 17, 2025Peer-reviewedCancer Biology

Unbiased mapping of cereblon neosubstrate landscape by high-throughput proteomics

Martin Steger, Gisele Nishiguchi, Qiong Wu, Bjoern Schwalb, Bachuki Shashikadze, Kevin M. McGowan, Marisa Actis, Anup Aggarwal, Zhe Shi, Jeanine E. Price, Anand Mayasundari, Lei Yang, Anastasia Bednarz, Sophie Machata, Tobias Graef, , Zoran Ranković

Proteomics and ubiquitinomics screening of 100 CRBN ligands in two cell lines validated 50 novel neosubstrates and yielded selective phenyl glutarimide degraders of KDM4B, G3BP2 and VCL.

Nature Communications · Aug 20, 2025Peer-reviewedBiochemistry✦ In-depth digest

Uridine Metabolism as a Targetable Metabolic Achilles' Heel for chemo-resistant B-ALL

Yuxuan Liu, Haowen Jiang, Jingjing Liu, Lucille Stuani, Milton J. Merchant, Astraea Jager, Abhishek Koladiya, Ti‐Cheng Chang, Pablo Domizi, Jolanda Sarno, Timothy Keyes, Dorra Jedoui, Ao Wang, Jodie Meng, Felix J. Hartmann, , Kara Lynn Davis

This study identifies uridine metabolism as a therapeutic target for chemo-resistant B-ALL by linking active signaling to uridine dependency and demonstrating DHODH inhibition as a promising treatment.

bioRxiv · Jan 27, 2025 · PreprintCancer Biology

Bootstrap Evaluation of Association Matrices (BEAM) for Integrating Multiple Omics Profiles with Multiple Outcomes

Anna Eames Seffernick, Xueyuan Cao, Cheng Cheng, Wenjian Yang, Robert J. Autry, Jun J.J. Yang, Ching‐Hon Pui, David T. Teachey, Jatinder Kaur Lamba, Charles Grenfell Mullighan, Stanley B Pounds

BEAM integrates multiple omics profiles with multiple clinical outcomes using bootstrap resampling to identify significant associations, outperforming existing methods in simulations and a pediatric leukemia application.

bioRxiv · Jul 31, 2024 · PreprintBioinformatics

Functional investigation of inherited noncoding genetic variation impacting the pharmacogenomics of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia treatment

Kashi Raj Bhattarai, Robert J. Mobley, Kelly R. Barnett, Daniel C. J. Ferguson, Baranda S. Hansen, Jonathan D. Diedrich, Brennan P. Bergeron, Satoshi Yoshimura, Wenjian Yang, Kristine R. Crews, Christopher S. Manring, Elias Joseph Jabbour, Elisabeth M. Paietta, Mark Robert Litzow, Steven Mitchell Kornblau, , Daniel Savic

The paper identifies noncoding genetic variants affecting chemotherapy response in childhood ALL by linking them to gene regulatory elements and showing functional impacts on drug sensitivity.

Nature Communications · May 1, 2024Peer-reviewedGenetic & Genomic Medicine

Effects of NT5C2 germline variants on 6-mecaptopurine metabolism in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Chuang Jiang, Wenjian Yang, Takaya Moriyama, Chengcheng Liu, Colton J. Smith, Wentao Yang, Maoxiang Qian, Ziping Li, Morten Tulstrup, Kjeld Schmiegelow, Kristine R. Crews, Hui Zhang, Ching‐Hon Pui, William Edward Evans, Mary V. Relling, , Jun J.J. Yang

This study identifies NT5C2 germline variants affecting 6-MP metabolism in ALL patients, showing two independent variants influence TGN levels.

Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics · Oct 29, 2020Peer-reviewedGenetics

Massive parallel variant characterization identifies NUDT15 alleles associated with thiopurine toxicity

Chase C. Suiter, Takaya Moriyama, Kenneth A. Matreyek, Wentao Yang, Emma Rose Scaletti, Rina Nishii, Wenjian Yang, Keito Hoshitsuki, Minu Singh, Amita Trehan, Chris Parish, Colton J. Smith, Deepa Bhojwani, Liz Y. P. Yuen, Chi Kong Li, , Jun J.J. Yang

The paper identifies 1,103 deleterious NUDT15 variants using functional assays, improving pharmacogenetics-guided thiopurine treatment by accurately predicting toxicity risk alleles.

bioRxiv · Aug 20, 2019 · PreprintGenomics