Faculty

FLORIDA STATE   /   PEOPLE   /   FACULTY

Dr. Qing-Xiang “Amy” Sang, Professor

Professional Preparation/Appointments

Endowed Professorship in Cancer Research
Ph.D. Georgetown University Medical Center (1990)

Contact Information

Email qxsang@chem.fsu.edu
Office 3007 CSL 850.644.8683
Lab 3501 CSL 850.644.4113

Programs of Research

Biochemistry

research specialties

Bioanalytical, Chemical Biology, Structural Biology

Research Interest

​Dr. Sang’s laboratory deciphers the biochemical mechanisms of human breast, prostate, and brain cancer initiation, progression, metabolism, angiogenesis, and invasion for cancer biomarker and drug discovery. Protein biochemistry and genomics studies are combined with molecular cell biology, medicinal chemistry, biostatistics and bioinformatics, and biomedical engineering. Novel metalloproteinases such as human cancer-derived endometase/matrilysin-2 (MMP-26) and adamalysin 19 (ADAM19) were discovered. Pro-enzyme activation, substrate specificities, the inhibition kinetics, and the structure-function relationships of the proteinases and their inhibitors were investigated. The Sang group decoded the driven gene mutations and oncogenic pathways of brain cancer medulloblastoma. Human childhood brain malignant rhabdoid tumor is modeled using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived brain organoids. The gene editing and stem cell technologies are utilized to generate this novel cancer model for drug evaluation for the effective treatment of pediatric brain cancer. Environmental toxins are also evaluated using human cell lines and brain organoids.

Faculty Interview

Publications

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Park HI, Jin Y, Hurst DR, Monroe CA, Lee S, Schwartz MA, Sang QX. The intermediate S1′ pocket of the endometase/matrilysin-2 active site revealed by enzyme inhibition kinetic studies, protein sequence analyses, and homology modeling. J Biol Chem. 2003, 278, 51646-53.
Bosco DB, Roycik MD, Jin Y, Schwartz MA, Lively TJ, Zorio DA, Sang QA. A new synthetic matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor reduces human mesenchymal stem cell adipogenesis. PLoS One. 2017, 12, e0172925.

Robbins CJ, Bou-Dargham MJ, Sanchez K, Rosen MC, Sang QA. Decoding Somatic Driver Gene Mutations and Affected Signaling Pathways in Human Medulloblastoma Subgroups. J Cancer. 2018, 9, 4596-4610.

Bou-Dargham MJ, Liu Y, Sang QA, Zhang J. Subgrouping breast cancer patients based on immune evasion mechanisms unravels a high involvement of transforming growth factor-beta and decoy receptor 3. PLoS One. 2018, 13, e0207799.
Bejoy J, Yuan X, Song L, Hua T, Jeske R, Sart S, Sang QA, Li Y. Genomics Analysis of Metabolic Pathways of Human Stem Cell-Derived Microglia-Like Cells and the Integrated Cortical Spheroids. Stem Cells Int. 2019, 2382534.