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.