Chemotherapy is still the primary treatment for many types of cancer. Most cancer patients with the disease are initially responsive to chemotherapeutic treatment. However, drug resistance has become a major impediment to the successful treatment of cancer. To date the mechanism(s) of drug resistance are yet fully understood. Previous studies have suggested that many proteins, such as BRCA1, BRCA2, MDR1, MRP1, MDM2, hMLH1, HSP27, and HSP70, are differentially expressed in drug-resistant tumor cells, such as ovarian tumor cells, by mRNA differential display analysis. Using multiple proteomic platforms, we have identified a panel of potential protein targets that can serve as biomarkers for drug resistance diagnosis and targets for new therapeutic development. My lab is focusing on the use of the cutting-edge proteomic technologies such as MudPIT, label-free protein quantification, and MRM-based protein assays to identify and validate protein biomarker candidates that are the causing factors for certain biological behaviors. Other areas of my research are to develop non antibody-based, high-throughput mass spectrometry-based assays that could quantitatively measure biomarkers from a variety of species in multiplexed fashion and to develop early cancer diagnostic biomarker panels for breast and ovarian cancers. Research interests include the investigations of DNA repair process and platinum-based drug resistance in ovarian cancer cells, and functional proteomic analysis of DNA repair proteins in mammalian systems.
