Dr. Shen's interdisciplinary lab will combine their expertise in systems biology and technology development to address several critically unmet needs in cancer research and care, including minimal residue disease (MRD), refractory colorectal cancer (rCRC), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), cancer-associated cachexia (CAC), and cancer microbiome. First, they will develop a personalized treatment platform for cancer patients with MRD, who currently lack treatment options. The capability to treat these patients early during this critical time window before recurrence will potentially cure the patients or significantly prolong their survival. This platform will integrate patient-derived micro-org...

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Dr. Shen's interdisciplinary lab will combine their expertise in systems biology and technology development to address several critically unmet needs in cancer research and care, including minimal residue disease (MRD), refractory colorectal cancer (rCRC), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), cancer-associated cachexia (CAC), and cancer microbiome. First, they will develop a personalized treatment platform for cancer patients with MRD, who currently lack treatment options. The capability to treat these patients early during this critical time window before recurrence will potentially cure the patients or significantly prolong their survival. This platform will integrate patient-derived micro-organospheres avatars with circulating tumor DNA assays to select the optimal combinatorial treatment and monitor its efficacy. This platform will also be explored for finding optimal treatments for rCRC and HCC patients and finding personalized treatment for underrepresented patient populations. Second, his group will leverage their new discovery to develop a neuromodulation therapy for CAC, the cancer-induced wasting syndrome. CAC is estimated to cause more than one-third of cancer-related deaths, and its onset usually stops further treatment, hence responsible for more deaths indirectly. Dr Shen recently discovered that CAC disrupts the gut-brain axis and electrical vagal blocking prevented or reversed the systemic cachectic symptoms and significantly prolonged survival. Based on this finding, he will develop non-invasive neuromodulation therapies for CAC using flexible electronics. Third, his lab will develop interactome analyses to understand how microbial pathways interact with host pathways to influence treatment response. This project will take advantage of the statistical decontamination algorithm his lab developed to identify cancer microbiome with high confidence.

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