Lu Chen Lab @ Fox Chase Cancer Center
solving disease one base pair at a time
"the siblings" are now both candidates!
Two of our rock-star PhD students from TempleBMSC have advanced to candidacy at their 3rd year. Congratulations to Julia Hoopman and Alex Morris on this significant milestone.
The sky is now the limit!
09/27/2024
Lab received a NIGMS equipment supplement award (R35-02S1)
08/06/2024
Two talented students joined the lab for thesis research
August, 2024​
Emily Pochet and Maria Ruiz, two talented students from the Graduate Program in Molecular & Cellular Biology & Genetics (MCBG) at Drexel University.
Emily has been rotating and doing summer research in the lab since Jan 2024, where she very quickly evolves into the experimental leaders in the lab at multiple fronts, developing novel assays, her own thesis research, and contributing to others. Has been such a thrill to work with her. ​
Maria recently joined the lab. She developed skillsets in cell culture and flow cytometry and is interested in CRISPR engineering and drug discovery. Welcome!
Emily Pochet
Maria Ruiz
Our collaborative paper published in Nature
July17, 2024
Our collaborative work is in its print form in the current issue of Nature. Congrats to our lab Sci Tech Victoria (Tori) Gillespie for her co-authorship and her recent acceptance into graduate school!​
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Star high school scholar Emily Gerstein finishes 2nd summer research, heading to Cornell University, Ithaca as a freshman
August 8, 2024
Thanks for two summers of productive research on R-loop biochemistry, establishing new assays and possibility for the lab, with a great co-authored paper in Cancer Discovery (Murayama et al. 2024); Emily G you will be missed​!
Dr. Aldana Vistarop won a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship award
June 17, 2024
Dr. Aldana Vistarop is awarded with the 3-year Kirby Postdoctoral Fellowship. She was voted as the top candidate by the review committee, and this fellowship support is the top competitive awards. Please join me in congratulating Aldana for a well-deserved recognition. The figure shown indicated her celebratory mood when certain team lifted another trophy.​
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The lab enjoys a great showing at the 27th Annual Fox Chase Research Day
June 21, 2024​
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Congrats to Gregory Matveev for the successful defense of his master's degree in Applied Mathematics and Physics
On May 15, 2024, Gregory Matveev has become Matveev, MS., with his successful defense in front of a thesis committee at MIPT in Moscow. Gregory is our first graduate student who defended thesis research from the lab.
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Lab team "TS Primers" defeated in a local Taylor Swift Trivia
In a Taylor Swift Trivia @AbingtonLibrary, our lab team "TS Primers" was soundly defeated by an army of tweens and teens. Our self-claimed #1 swifty Julia (PhD student) led a gallant effort that finally won a single round out of 6. "And I might be okay, but I'm not fine at all".
Three Star High School Seniors receive offer from Ivy League schools.
2024-04 ~ 05
Congratulations to our high school seniors - Amal Oubarri (Central High) and Ashley Park (Wissahickon High) - for receiving college offers from University of Pennsylvania; Emily Gerstein (Central Buck West High) for an offer from Cornell University. Well deserved!
Amal Oubarri, our talented high school senior from Central High School, just won the 1st prize in the 45th George Washington Carver Science Fair, with her research entitled "Role of Chemical Modifications in DNA:RNA Duplex". Amal runs beautiful kinetic enzymatic and binding assays/gels using her reconstituted R-loop. Couldn't be more proud, congratulations!
03/18/2024
Congrats Alex for winning the David Allis travel award
03/08/2024
Our paper with Israel Canadas Lab, entitled "Targeting DHX9 triggers tumor-intrinsic interferon response and replication stress in Small Cell Lung Cancer", has been accepted by Cancer Discovery, on 12/15/2023
Congratulations to our 1st year Temple-BMSC graduate student Alexander Morris and our high school student Emily Gerstein for authorships.
read more here: https://doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-23-0486
Lu visited the Department of Hematology/Center for Genome Integrity at Washtington University in St. Louis
2023-08-30 ~ 08-31
We have been fortunate to work with two rockstar summer interns - Abby and Emily - looking forward to cross paths again!
The LuChenLab team "prisonbreak" from two consecutive escape room with single try
2023-08-15
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We welcome new graduate student Grigory "Grisha" Matveev
2023-07-17 ~
Today our lab celebrates the long-awaited arrival of Grigory "Grisha" Matveev - our 3rd graduate student majoring in Biophysics@mipt_eng. Grisha will engineer optogenetic tools to better understand the live-cell dynamics of RNP biogenesis and catalysis. Here is Grisha and the sweet treats he shares with the lab.
NIGMS Maximizing Investigator's Research Award (MIRA/R35)
2023-07-01 ~ 2028-05-31
The Lu Chen Lab has received a new NIGMS MIRA/R35 grant, entitled "Telomerase RNP prisonbreaks from phase-separated nuclear body". Research supported by this grant (1R35GM150538) will investigate the mechanism by which phase-separation/cellular compartmentalization controls noncoding RNA structure, trafficking, and genomic functions. The completion of the proposed studies is likely to reveal new therapeutic means to treat aging-related degenerative diseases.
Patterson Postdoctoral Fellowship Awarded to Musinu!
2023-06-26 ~ 2026-06
Congrats to Dr. Musinu Zakari for receiving the Patterson Postdoctoral Fellowship in structural biology & biochemistry. Musinu will trace the giant steps of Lindo/Betty Patterson - pioneering legends in X-ray crystallography - in structure-function study of telomerase RNP.
Congratulations to Julia Hoopman (our 1st-year PhD student) for her selection as a T32 training fellow by NIGMS..
The T32 award grants Julia access to clinical boards, bioinformatic workshop, meeting/stipend supports, and leadership/teaching opportunities.
2023-06-23
At the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory meeting #cshl-telo-2023, a scene shortly after Lu presented the telomerase prisonbreak story.
Revisiting telomerase assembly—A cradle-to-prison model
Musinu Zakari, Cameron Lian, Ashley Park, Alexander Morris, Julia Hoopman, Yan Wang, Steven Artandi, Lu Chen.
Presenter affiliation: Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
2023-05-02
We hosted Gateway high-school students for a hands-on visit as a part of the Gateway_Fox Chase Discovery Tour.
Thanks Musinu and Julia for this great outreach and mentoring activity.
2023-04-17
Julia Hoopman (Temple-LKSOM 1st year PhD student) joins the lab for her 3rd rotation - Welcome, Julia!
2023-03-06
Our proposal "Telomerase RNP prisonbreaks from phase-separated nuclear body" has received fundable score from NIGMS-MIRA (Maximizing Investigator's Research Award) - a five-year grant that would bring the lab the needed support to grow and reach new grounds.
2023-03-03
A perfect feast of chromatin and epigenetic science - great time hanging out with friends, colleagues, making professional connections. Congrats to CEI and JW for another win in the book.
Lu chaired a "meteoric" session featuring two stars/leaders (Cigall Kadoche and Chris Mason) at the 2023-CEI-symposium
2023-03-02
Our joint paper with Dr. Ylli Doksani @ IFOM, Milan, Italy has been accepted by SCIENCE ADVANCES.
2023-02-21
We showed that telomeres are hotspots for replication fork reversal and the 3' of such reversed fork becomes a perfect substrate for telomerase RNP to add de novo DNA repeats on. This work illustrates how replicative stress is managed to safeguard mammalian genome.
Lu had a great visit with Drexel University Dept of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, establishing collaborations, co-mentorship, and a path to host Drexel PhD and Master student for thesis research at FCCC.
2023-02-13
Lu Chen Lab hosted Dr. Roger Kornberg for a Distinguished Lecture at Fox Chase Cancer Center
2023-01-12
Roger's presentation is breath-takingly beautiful and touching. He used very simple slide style but emphasized on the core message (sometimes even blackened out slides to gather audience attention); he distilled down complicated biochemical reconstitution and structural biology into chewable bitesize but the big picture is always loud and clear. He spent an entire one hour of his evening time listening and answering every single trainee's question to the fullest and beyond - all he really wished is for everyone in the audience to enjoy basic research and discoveries. Many trainees told me they burst into tears by the sheer contagious purity of his pursuit of knowledge.
Persistency, determination, focus, hard work... what a force and inspiration. Dr. Kornberg is truly a pure seeker of his own kind. ​
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Our recent paper made it to the cover art of the current NAR (Volume 50, Issue 21, 28 November 2022)
2022-12
These cutesy snakes revealed a crosstalk between 5′ cap hypermethylation and 3′ end processing underlying the biogenesis of spliceosomal RNAs (snRNA) – a step essential for motor neuron survival that is conserved among three organisms. Congrats to my amazing collaborator Grazia Raffa (univ of Rome), Steven Artandi (Stanford), and a great team of contributing scientists across multiple institutions and continents. The art was a collaborative work with the talented artist - Emma Videl.
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LuChenLab hosts Dr. Thomas Cech for a Distinguished Seminar on 09/22 - what a journey of discoveries and inspirations!
2022-09-22
Within 12 years of independence at CU-Boulder, Tom's Nobel work discovered the catalytic properties of RNAs and re-wrote the central dogma.
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Tom went ahead to produce more Nobel-worth discoveries, including the discovery of TERT and Pot1.
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Tom trained numerous leading scientists, including many with deep influence on our lab: Dan Herschlag, Julie Cooper, Peter Baumann, and Jennifer Doudna with her Nobel Prize on CRISPR-Cas9.
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Tom speaks for himself as "a full-time teacher" and "a teacher for life". He shared his thoughts on career and answered questions from ten Fox Chase trainees, from undergrad, graduate students, postdoc, to faculty.
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Alex joins the lab as a 1st year rotation student, welcome!
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Our first Fox Chase paper has been published in Nucleic Acids Research, Congrats Masha!
2022-08-10
We revealed a crosstalk between 5’ cap hypermethylation and 3’ end processing underlying the biogenesis of spliceosomal RNAs (snRNA) – a step essential for motor neuron survival that is conserved among three organismal models. We found that immature snRNA (RNA snake in red) carries a mono-methylated 5’-cap and retains a 3’-extended tail containing poly-uridine; whereas, mature snRNAs (RNA snake in blue) acquire a tri-methylated cap that is catalyzed by TGS1 – the cap hypermethyltransferase – in a step that is needed for effective processing of its 3’ tail.
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https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkac659
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Media coverage： RNA Findings Could Assist in Development of New Treatments for Neurodegenerative Disorders, Cancer | Fox Chase Cancer Center - Philadelphia, PA
Lu was among the panelists of the "Together Facing Cancer and Aging" program, sharing information on the latest cancer research, treatment, and care.
2022-06-22
Marie "Masha" Kobin will join the LuChenLab as a Summer Research Fellow - a competitive position funded by the Jeanne E. and Robert F. Ozois Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship. Congratulations and welcome, Masha!
2022-04-12
Lu presented a seminar in the 3rd Chromatin Club - Miami, titled
"The somatic non-coding driver mutation is repurposed from species evolution"
2022-04-05
There were ~300 or so participants, with Dr. Joana Wysocka as the keynote speaker. Lu had interactions with old and new colleagues alike - feeling good to be back into the chromatin community! Thanks for the wonderful invitation by Dr. Luis Morey, Dr. Whestine, and Active Motif.
We hosted "Steppingstone Scholars" and provided hands-on experience for these talented, underserved Philly high schoolers
Jan 12, 2022
Students told us it is very cool to see real labs, and how the labs looked different than they expected - they also helped with various lab activities, such as miniprep and pouring agarose gels.
for more about these students, please visit: www.steppingstonescholars.org
Lu Chen gave a seminar to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Nov 11, 2021
Lu Chen Lab is awarded with $200,062 from an R21 grant by NIH-NIAID, beginning 04/01/2022
April, 2022
This grant will support the lab effort to establish RNA-centric approaches to understand noncoding RNA's roles during immune cell development and differentiation.
Lu taught the 2021_Responsible Conduct of Research to Fox trainees, on data irreproducibility and fraud.
Oct 26, 2021
Lu Chen Lab is hiring a Sci Tech
August, 2021
Job Qualifications
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A Bachelor’s degree in a basic science discipline is required.
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Experience working in a research laboratory is strongly preferred.
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Excellent organizational skills and multitasking capacities
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Excellent communication skills (verbal and written), interpersonal skills and a team-spirit
Job Responsibilities
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Conduct experiments, under the supervision of the PI, in areas including but not limited to molecular cloning, cell culture, and general biochemistry techniques.
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Order and organize laboratory supplies, maintain equipment, manage lab protocols.
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Support research grants, and present own research.
The fund-raising champion of the 2021 Paws for the Cause
2021-10-03
Since its first year, Paws for the Cause has raised more than $600,000 for cancer research at Fox Chase. This is the 2nd year in a row that the Whetstine team clings on to top spot.
Lu Chen Lab has an opening for postdoc
August, 2021
A postdoctoral position is immediately available in the Lu Chen lab of the Cancer Signaling and Epigenetic Program. The lab aims to understand in molecular details how misregulated RNA biology can contribute to human conditions, including cancer, aging, and degenerative diseases, with a long-term goal to design RNA-centric therapeutics to improve public health. We currently study RNP structure-function, RNA modifications and subcellular trafficking using multidisciplinary approaches, including RNP biochemistry, high-throughput RNA structural mapping, cell imaging, and genetic modeling in cellular and animal models.
Lu to meet and talk with the new class of Temple graduate students
August 30, 2021
Hope the students will fall in love with the science in FCCC, and join for many lab rotations, and eventually embarking on a graduate career.
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Here is the 1-page lab intro for the student's booklet compiled by Glenn's office.
Soon-keat Ooi is joining from Sept, as a postdoctoral fellow and a founding member, welcome!
07/28/2021
Soon-keat received his PhD in biochemistry from the graduate school of Stowers Institute, Kansas City, with Joan and Ron Conaways.
