Find a Laboratory Lisa Wang, MD
In coordination with Dr. Sharon Plon, Dr. Lisa Wang has assembled the largest world-wide registry of patients with Rothmund-Thomson syndrome (RTS). Registrants participate in IRB-approved research protocols at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). Associated with the Cancer Genetics and Genomics Program, the aim of the RTS research protocols is:
- to increase our understanding of the molecular basis of RTS and related disorders, and
- to further understand the mechanisms that predispose individuals to genomic instability and osteosarcoma development
The main goal of Dr. Lisa Wang’s translational laboratory research work is to understand genetic factors which predispose patients to osteosarcoma (OS), the most common malignant bone tumor in children and adolescents.
Dr. Wang and her colleagues focus on the gene product of RECQL4. RECQL4 belongs to a family of RECQ helicases that are important for maintaining genomic stability and for tumor suppression. It is found to be mutated in two-thirds of RTS patients. RTS patients with RECQL4 mutations have a significantly increased risk of developing osteosarcoma and other bone abnormalities.
Her lab is now characterizing the bone turnover status of RTS patients and examining the molecular and cellular consequences of loss of RECQL4 on the skeletal system using mouse models of RTS. They are also exploring the mechanistic role of RTS in bone development and osteosarcoma through its participation in cellular signaling pathways.
Dr. Lisa Wang’s lab is part of the sarcoma research laboratories of the Bone Tumor Program and the Cancer Genetics and Genomics Program.
