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Education and Training:

Premedicine in Biology, Nankai University, Tianjin, China (1986-89)

M.D. (Summa Cum Laude), Tianjin Medical University, China (1989-94)

Internship, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, China (1992-94)

Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, China (1994-00)

Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA (2000-03)

Qiang Tian, M.D., Ph.D.
Affiliate Assistant Professor of Medicine
University of Washington School of Medicine

Senior Research Scientist
Cancer and Stem Cell Group Leader
Institute for Systems Biology

Office Address:
Institute for Systems Biology
1441 N 34th St.
Seattle, WA 98103-8904

Phone: (206) 732-1308
Fax: (206) 543-3560
E-mail: qtian@systemsbiology.org
http://www.systemsbiology.org/Scientists_and_Research/Senior_Research_Scientists/Qiang_Tian


CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS


Hematopoiesis, cancer and stem cells, Wnt signaling, biomarker discovery, systems biology
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RESEARCH DESCRIPTION

Dr. Tian directs the cancer and stem cell biology group at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) employing systems approach—with the empowering genomic, proteomic, and computational strategies—to the interrogation of both normal and malignant developmental processes. The goal is to uncover novel stem cell and cancer markers and mechanisms governing stem cell self-renewal vs. differentiation. Dr. Tian has successfully applied state of the art high throughput sequencing, DNA microarray, and mass spectrometry (MS) based quantitative proteomic approaches for the molecular dissection of various developmental stages of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), embryonic stem cells (ESC), and more recently cancer stem cells isolated from leukemia and brain tumor patients.

The second area of research focuses on a key signal transduction pathway—the Wnt/b-catenin pathway—in the context of stem cell development and tumorigenesis. The protein-protein interaction network therein has been elucidated by using sophisticated proteomic approaches; novel b-catenin interacting partners and phosphorylation events (e.g. Ser552 by Akt) have been identified, leading to an intriguing new paradigm for b-catenin stabilization with potential clinical applications targeting cancer stem cells. Functional characterizations of novel pathway components are being actively pursued in model organisms using zebra fish and mouse genetics.

The third area of research concerns blood molecular fingerprints for early disease diagnosis. Building upon our extensive collection of deep transcriptomic data from a variety of mouse and human tissues, a panel of tissue-specific, secreted proteins can be selected for each organ, with peptides representing each proteins synthesized. Since blood serves as a window for diseases and the state of progression of these diseases, a MS-based proteomic strategy using this panel of molecular fingerprints can be applied to examine cancer patient blood samples for the identification of blood biomarkers that can be used for early detection and stratification of cancer.

All these research efforts are cultivated in an interdisciplinary team environment leveraging supports from several NIH center/program project grants in close collaboration with leaders in systems biology (Dr. Leroy Hood), stem cell biology (Drs. Irving Weissman and Michael Clarke, Stanford; Dr. Linheng Li, Stowers), neuro-oncology (Dr. Greg Foltz, Swedish Hospital), and nanotechnology (Dr. Jim Heath, Caltech). Expertise and knowledge gained from these studies are readily applicable to other biological and disease systems as exemplified by several ongoing and planned collaborations in the Division and UW-ISCRM (Reems, Blau, Ware, Moon, and Abkowitz).


SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Price, N.D., Foltz, G., Madan, A., Hood, L., and Tian, Q. (2007). Systems Biology and Cancer Stem Cells. J Cell Mol Med. Nov 20 [Epub ahead of print].

Hu, Z., Hood, L., and Tian, Q. (2007). Quantitative proteomic approaches for biomarker discovery. Proteomics Clin. Appl. 1, 1036-1041

Ma, L., Sun, B., Hood, L., and Tian, Q. (2007). Molecular profiling of stem cells. Clinica chimica acta; international journal of clinical chemistry 378, 24-32

Tian, Q., Stepaniants, S.B., Mao, M., Weng, L., Feetham, M.C., Doyle, M.J., Yi, E.C., Dai, H., Thorsson, V., Eng, J., et al. (2004). Integrated genomic and proteomic analyses of gene expression in Mammalian cells. Mol Cell Proteomics 3, 960-969.

Park, I.K., He, Y., Lin, F., Laerum, O.D., Tian, Q., Bumgarner, R., Klug, C.A., Li, K., Kuhr, C., Doyle, M.J., et al. (2002). Differential gene expression profiling of adult murine hematopoietic stem cells. Blood 99, 488-498.

Tian, Q. (2006). Proteomic exploration of the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway. Current opinion in molecular therapeutics 8, 191-197.

Tian, Q., Feetham, M.C., Tao, W.A., He, X.C., Li, L., Aebersold, R., and Hood, L. (2004). Proteomic analysis identifies that 14-3-3zeta interacts with beta-catenin and facilitates its activation by Akt. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 15370-15375.

He, X.C., Zhang, J., Tong, W.G., Tawfik, O., Ross, J., Scoville, D.H., Tian, Q., Zeng, X., He, X., Wiedemann, L.M., et al. (2004). BMP signaling inhibits intestinal stem cell self-renewal through suppression of Wnt-beta-catenin signaling. Nature genetics 36, 1117-1121.

Tian, Q., He, X.C., Hood, L., and Li, L. (2005). Bridging the BMP and Wnt pathways by PI3 kinase/Akt and 14-3-3zeta. Cell Cycle 4(2), 215-216.

He, X.C., Yin, T., Grindley, J.C., Tian, Q., Sato, T., Tao, W.A., Dirisina, R., Porter-Westpfahl, K.S., Hembree, M., Johnson, T., et al. (2007). PTEN-deficient intestinal stem cells initiate intestinal polyposis. Nature genetics 39, 189-198.

Yang, X.O., Pappu, B.P., Nurieva, R., Akimzhanov, A., Kang, H.S., Chung, Y., Ma, L., Shah, B., Panopoulos, A.D., Schluns, K.S., Watowich, S.S., Tian, Q., Jetten, A.M., and Dong, C. (2008). T helper 17 lineage differentiation is programmed by orphan nuclear receptors ROR alpha and ROR gamma. Immunity 28, 29-39.

Nurieva, R., Yang, X.O., Martinez, G., Zhang, Y., Panopoulos, A.D., Ma, L., Schluns, K., Tian, Q., Watowich, S.S., Jetten, A.M. and Dong, C. (2007). Essential autocrine regulation by IL-21 in the generation of inflammatory T cells. Nature 448, 480-483.

Park, H., Li, Z., Yang, X.O., Chang, S.H., Nurieva, R., Wang, Y.H., Wang, Y., Hood, L., Zhu, Z., Tian, Q., and Dong, C. (2005). A distinct lineage of CD4 T cells regulates tissue inflammation by producing interleukin 17. Nature immunology 6, 1133-1141.