Jian Yu Rao

Dr. J Rao is an internationally renowned cytopathologist and established investigator in cancer molecular epidemiology and biomarker studies. Prior to be a pathologist, he was already an established molecular epidemiologist involved in multiple high profile cancer prevention studies. He completed his anatomic/clinical pathology residency and cytopathology fellowship at UCLA, and joined the UCLA Department of Pathology as a faculty in 1999. Dr. J. Rao is a full professor and the director of Cytopathology, the director of gynecological pathology, and the medical director of cytotechnology school. He has dual appointments in pathology and epidemiology. He is particularly well known for urine cytology, especially in utilizing biomarkers as adjunct for detecting bladder cancer. He has been invited to be a speaker for over 100 meetings and occasions locally, nationally and internationally for topics including cancer chemoprevention, biomarkers, urine cytology, Fine Needle Aspiration cytology, and gynecological pathology. Dr. Rao has an active role in teaching and research, with continuous funding from NIH or other agencies for cancer biomarker and prevention studies in the last 20 years, with over 100 peer-reviewed research publications. He is also interested in developing new technologies for pathology especially cytopathology, including imaging analysis, nanotechnology and telepathology.

Areas of Interest

The research in my laboratory is focused on developing biomarkers that can be used for individual risk assessment, early detection, and therapeutic monitoring of cancer. To reach this goal, we have two specific research areas: The first area of research is to study the molecular basis of tumor morphogenesis, we focus our effort on investigating how cytoskeletal proteins, specifically the microfilament actin and the associated binding proteins, are altered in tumorigenesis. We hypothesize that since tumor cells have morphological features that are distinctive from normal cells, and since actin family proteins play important roles in regulating cell morphology, adhesion, as well as motility, investigating these protein changes during tumorigenesis will not only provide molecular insight for tumor morphology, but at the same time develop surrogate markers that are more sensitive and specific than morphological analysis alone. Since actin network is regulated by multiple complex oncogenic signal transduction events, including Ras superfamily small G proteins Rac/Rho/Cdc42, and Src family proteins, and many of these proteins have been developed as the potential therapeutic targets, it is possible that an actin centric strategy for cancer detection/monitoring/prevention/therapy can be developed in he future. Our second area of research is to develop approaches that can be used to detect early malignant lesions, especially cancer of the breast, bladder, and prostate. The detection of low stage malignant and premalignant lesions is essential for the successful halt, or even the reversion of malignant progression through chemoprevention strategy. The focus will be to develop simple, high throughput techniques that can be used to detect expressional abnormalities of multiple genes on a small sample volume basis. One specific example is to develop Quantitative Fluorescence Image Analysis (QFIA) as a single-cell proteomic method for biomarker analysis on cytological materials. Recently, collaborating with investigators from California Nanosystem Institute, we have investigated the possibility of nanomechanical profiles as markers for not only detecting cancer cells, but providing prognostic and therapeutic information to guide cancer management at individual patient level.

Selected Publications

• Sharma S, Santiskulvong C, Bentolila LA, Rao J, Dorigo O, Gimzewski JK. Correlative nanomechanical profiling with super-resolution F-actin imaging reveals novel insights into mechanisms of cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer cells. Nanomedicine 2012; 8(5): 757-766.
• Daniel R. Gossetta, Henry T. K. Tse, Serena A. Lee, Yong Ying, Anne G. Lindgren, Otto O. Yang, Jianyu Rao, Amander T. Clark, and Dino Di Carlo Hydrodynamic stretching of single cells for large population mechanical phenotyping. PNAS. 2012; 109(20): 7630-7635.
• Li Y, Chang SC, Goldstein BY, Scheider WL, Cai L, You NC, Tarleton HP, Ding B, Zhao J, Wu M, Jiang Q, Yu S, Rao J, Lu QY, Zhang ZF, Mu L Green tea consumption, inflammation and the risk of primary hepatocellular carcinoma in a Chinese population. Cancer Epidemiol. 2011; Epub ahead of print.
• Sarah E Cross, Yu-Sheng Jin, Qing-Yi Lu, JianYu Rao and James K Gimzewski Green tea extract selectively targets nanomechanics of live metastatic cancer cells. Nanotechnology. 2011; 22(21).
• Izadyar F, Wong J, Maki C, Pacchiarotti J, Ramos T, Howerton K, Yuen C, Greilach S, Zhao HH, Chow M, Chow YC, Rao J, Barritt J, Bar-Chama N, Copperman A Identification and characterization of repopulating spermatogonial stem cells from the adult human testis. Hum Reprod. 2011; Epub ahead of print.
• Klatte T, Seligson DB, Rao JY, Yu H, de Martino M, Garraway I, Wong SG, Belldegrun AS, Pantuck AJ Absent CD44v6 expression is an independent predictor of poor urothelial bladder cancer outcome. J Urol. 2010; 183(6): 2403-8.
• Park SL, Bastani D, Goldstein BY, Chang SC, Cozen W, Cai L, Cordon-Cardo C, Ding B, Greenland S, He N, Hussain SK, Jiang Q, Lee YC, Liu S, Lu ML, Mack TM, Mao JT, Morgenstern H, Mu LN, Oh SS, Pantuck A, Papp JC, Rao J, Reuter VE, Tashkin DP, Wang H, You NC, Yu SZ, Zhao JK, Zhang ZF Associations between NBS1 polymorphisms, haplotypes and smoking-related cancers. Carcinogenesis. 2010; 31(7): 1264-71.
• Jin P, Lu XJ, Sheng JQ, Fu L, Meng XM, Wang X, Shi TP, Li SR, Rao J Estrogen stimulates the expression of mismatch repair gene hMLH1 in colonic epithelial cells. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2010; 3(8): 910-6.
• Sheng JQ, Li SR, Su H, Li JS, Sun ZQ, Wu ZT, Wu X, Xia CH, Rao J Fecal cytology in conjunction with immunofecal occult blood test for colorectal cancer screening. Anal Quant Cytol Histol. 2010; 32(3): 131-5.
• Li HX, Li M, Li CL, Ma JH, Wang MR, Rao J, Pan QJ ImmunoCyt and cytokeratin 20 immunocytochemistry as adjunct markers for urine cytologic detection of bladder cancer: a prospective study. Anal Quant Cytol Histol. 2010; 32(1): 45-52.
• Wilson L, Cross S, Gimzewski J, Rao J Nanocytology: a novel class of biomarkers for cancer management. IDrugs. 2010; 13(12): 847-51.
• Oh SS, Chang SC, Cai L, Cordon-Cardo C, Ding BG, Greenland S, He N, Jiang Q, Kheifets L, Le A, Lee YC, Liu S, Lu ML, Mao JT, Morgenstern H, Mu LN, Pantuck A, Papp JC, Park SL, Rao JY, Reuter VE, Tashkin DP, Wang H, You NC, Yu SZ, Zhao JK, Belldegrun A, Zhang ZF Single nucleotide polymorphisms of 8 inflammation-related genes and their associations with smoking-related cancers. Int J Cancer. 2010; 127(9): 2169-82.
• Peggy S Sullivan, Jessica B Chan, Mary R Levin, and Jianyu Rao Urine cytology and adjunct markers for detection and surveillance of bladder cancer. Am J Transl Res. 2010; 2(4): 412-440.
• Mao JT, Nie WX, Tsu IH, Jin YS, Rao JY, Lu QY, Zhang ZF, Go VL, Serio KJ White tea extract induces apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer cells: the role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-{gamma} and 15-lipoxygenases. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2010; 3(9): 1132-40.
• Klatte T, Seligson DB, Rao JY, Yu H, de Martino M, Kawaoka K, Wong SG, Belldegrun AS, Pantuck AJ Carbonic anhydrase IX in bladder cancer: a diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic molecular marker. Cancer. 2009; 115(7): 1448-58.