Zhen Lin MD PhD

Zhen Lin MD PhD

Associate Professor & Technical Director, Molecular Pathology Laboratory

Our research mainly focuses on both viral and cellular RNA duringhost-pathogen interaction.  

Humanoncogenic viruses account for at least 12% of total cancer casesworldwide.  Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) isthe first identified human oncogenic virus and it alone causes ~200,000 cancercases and ~1.8% of total cancer-related death annually. Myresearch program focuses on two DNA tumor viruses: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) andHuman papillomavirus (HPV). We try to figure out how these tumor virusesinteract with the host cells and how they promote cancer development.Meanwhile, I am also interested in clinical translational research and try todevelop new therapeutic approaches to treat virus-associated cancers.

 

HPV research program: The central question we try to address in this research is if HPVinfection is causally associated with lung cancers in HIV(+) populations andhow HPV contributes to the lung carcinogenesis.

 

EBV research program:  Thecentral goal of this research project is to determine the precise role of EBVin the pathogenesis of its associated cancers including nasopharyngealcarcinoma and lung cancers using sequencing based approach as well astraditional molecular biology methods. Meanwhile, we’d like to develop new therapeutic strategies to treatthose EBV-associated cancers.

 

Education

1995-2000     M.D.             Peking University Health Science Center,  

                                            School of Medicine, Beijing, China

 

2000-2005     Ph.D.             Molecular and Cellular Biology

                                            Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana

                                             Dr. Erik K. Flemington, thesis advisor

 ORCID identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9229-053X

 

MyNCBI Link

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/zhen.lin.1/bibliography/public/

 

Selected Publications

 

Becnel D,Abdelghani R, Nanbo A, Avilala J, Kahn J, Li L, Lin Z. Pathogenic Role of Epstein-Barr Virus in Lung Cancers. Viruses.2021 May. 13(5), 877

 

Avilala J, Becnel D, Abdelghani R, NanboA, Kahn J, Li L, Lin Z. Role ofvirally encoded circular RNAs in the pathogenicity of human oncogenic viruses. Frontiersin Microbiology. 2021 April.12:657036.

 

          Chen J*, Goyal N*, Dai L*, Lin Z*, Del Valle L, Zabaleta J, Liu J, Post S,Foroozesh M, Qin   Z. Developing newceramide analogs and identifying novel sphingolipid controlled genes against avirus-associated lymphoma. Blood. 2020Nov:136(19):2175-2187. (*Co-firstauthor).

 

ZhaoM, Nanbo A, Becnel D, Qin Z, Morris GF, Li L, Lin Z. Ubiquitin Modification of the Epstein-Barr Virus ImmediateEarly Transactivator Zta. J Virol. 2020 Oct:JVI.01298-20. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01298-20. PMID: 32847852.

 

 

Keywords/Tags:

Epstein-Barr virus, Human papillomavirus, EBV, HPV, next-generation sequencing, RNA, bioinformatics

 

Link to lab website if they have one

https://medicine.tulane.edu/lin-laboratory

LCRC Faculty

Yan Dong PhD
Cancer Biology
Tulane University School of Medicine
Nicholas Duesbery PhD
Population Sciences
Ochsner Health
Samrat Dutta PhD
Translational Oncology
Xavier University
Margarita Echeverri PhD
Population Sciences
Xavier University
Khalid A El Sayed PhD
Translational Oncology
Tulane University School of Medicine
Jasmin Eugene PharmD
Population Sciences
Xavier University
Jennifer Fang, PhD
Cancer Biology
Tulane University School of Medicine
Faye Grimsley, PhD
Xavier University
Wenke Feng, PhD
Cancer Biology