LAN LABDuke University
Research program
05

Cancer Drug Development & Precision Therapeutics

Translating discoveries in genome maintenance and RNA biology into new therapeutic strategies for cancer.

We develop therapeutic approaches that exploit cancer-specific dependencies identified through our mechanistic studies. Our drug-development program spans small-molecule inhibitors, targeted protein degradation including PROTACs, and targeted drug-delivery technologies, with particular emphasis on overcoming the challenges of therapeutic delivery in solid tumors.

ABL1 phosphorylates SYCP2 to promote transcription-coupled repair, which lets SYCP2-high ovarian cancer cells survive platinum. Gao et al., NAR Cancer 2025.

Key publications

  • ATR inhibition induces synthetic lethality in mismatch repair-deficient cells and augments immunotherapy

    Wang M, Ran X, Leung W, Kawale A, Saxena S, Ouyang J, Patel PS, Dong Y, Yin T, Shu J, Manguso RT, Lan L, Wang XF, Lawrence MS, Zou L

    Genes Dev · 2023

    DOIPubMed

  • ABL1-mediated tyrosine phosphorylation of SYCP2 contributes to transcription-coupled homologous recombination and platinum resistance in ovarian cancer

    Gao B, Wang X, Long M, Zhang F, Wang Y, Kumar R, Veillard I, Rueda BR, Yeku O, Lan L

    NAR Cancer · 2025

    DOIPubMed

  • SonoPIN enables precise, noninvasive, and efficient intracellular delivery of PROTACs

    Wu Y, Liu M, Li K, Li S, Phoon LY, Mai J, Chen Y, Yan W, Lan SN, Rufo J, Milford G, He Y, Wu Q, Yang S, Lan L, Benkovic SJ, Huang TJ

    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2026

    DOIPubMed

All publications on Cancer therapeuticsAll research programs