Dr. Shan Zhu, PhD
Minocycline is an FDA approved antibiotic and was recently found to inhibit angiogenesis/vasculogenesis, which is important for tumor growth and metastasis. In a murine glioblastoma model, treatment with minocycline delivered intracranially at the time of tumor implantation resulted in 100% survival in contrast to untreated control animals that died within 21 days. However, the detailed mechanism underlying such dramatic effect of minocycline is still unknown.

Dr. Zhu will focus on the basic mechanism of minocycline inside the tumor cells based on his previous findings about induction of cell apoptosis (self-controlled cell death program) by minocycline with a yet unidentified pathway. Defining the molecular physiology of alternative apoptotic pathway will improve our understanding of tumorigenesis. The resulting information will help understand the role of minocycline in the treatment of brain tumors and provide additional therapeutic strategies, development of new drugs, benefit patients suffered from brain tumors and other tumors as well.