Shichun Zheng MD
Assistant Adjunct Professor of Neurological Surgery
Dr. Zheng's research interests have been focused on molecular cancer epidemiology, including genetic and epigenetic mechanisms in human cancers, as well as development of new research approaches for molecular epidemiological studies of cancer in different populations.
In cancer cells, DNA methylation patterns are severely dysregulated and characterized by overall hypomethylation and paradoxical CpG island hypermethylation, which is associated with transcriptional inactivation of tumor suppressor genes. Dr. Zheng has been applying not only commonly used techniques, such as methylation-specific PCR and quantitative methylation-specific PCR, but also a large-scale integrated approach, involving chromatin immunoprecipitation microarray (ChIP-chip), to gain insight into the relative contribution of this epigenetic mechanism in the formation of human brain tumors. In addition to epigenetic mechanisms, Dr. Zheng has been utilizing expression microarray (gene chip) to study gene expression profile and its relationship with histological classes, age, survival, and other factors.
Education, Training, and Previous Positions
- 1974-77: General Medicine, Medical College, Xian, China
1984-87: Human Parasitology, Medical University, Xian, China
1987-1991: Assistant Professor of Medicine, Xian Medical University, China
1991-1992: Associate Professor of Medicince, Xian Medical University, China
1992-1996: Postgraduate Researcher, UCSF
1996-1998: Assistant Specialist, UCSF
1998-2000: Associate Specialist, UCSF
2000-2005: Specialist, UCSF
Selected Professional Memberships and Appointments
- 1982-1992: Society of Immunology, China
1988-1992: Society of Medical Parasitology, China
1990-1992: Vice Director, Department of Medical Parasitology, Xian Medical University
1990-1992: Secretary General, Society of Parasitology, Shaanxi Province
1998-present: American Association of Cancer Research
Selected Honors and Awards
- 1992-1994: Sir Run Run Shaw Scholarship
Selected Recent Publications
Houseman EA, Christensen BC, Yeh RF, Marsit CJ, Karagas MR, Wrensch M, Nelson HH, Wiemels J, Zheng S, Wiencke JK, Kelsey KT. Model-based clustering of DNA methylation array data: a recursive-partitioning algorithm for high-dimensional data arising as a mixture of beta distributions. BMC Bioinformatics 2008 Sep 9;9:365.
Kwan ML, Ambrosone CB, Lee MM, Barlow J, Krathwohl SE, Ergas IJ, Ashley CH, Bittner JR, Darbinian J, Stronach K, Caan BJ, Davis W, Kutner SE, Quesenberry CP, Somkin CP, Sternfeld B, Wiencke JK, Zheng S, Kushi LH. The Pathways Study: a prospective study of breast cancer survivorship within Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Cancer Causes Control 2008;19(10):1065-76.
Wiencke JK, Zheng S, Morrison Z, Yeh RF. Differentially expressed genes are marked by histone 3 lysine 9 trimethylation in human cancer cells. Oncogene 2008;27(17):2412-21.
Wiencke JK, Zheng S, Jelluma N, Tihan T, Vandenberg S, Tamguney T, Baumber R, Parsons R, Lamborn KR, Berger MS, Wrensch MR, Haas-Kogan DA, Stokoe D. Methylation of the PTEN promoter defines low-grade gliomas and secondary glioblastoma. Neuro Oncol 2007;9(3):271-9.
Marsit CJ, Zheng S, Aldape K, Hinds PW, Nelson HH, Wiencke JK, Kelsey KT. PTEN expression in non-small-cell lung cancer: evaluating its relation to tumor characteristics, allelic loss, and epigenetic alteration. Hum Pathol 2005;36(7):768-76.
Wiemels JL, Zhang Y, Chang J, Zheng S, Metayer C, Zhang L, Smith MT, Ma X, Selvin S, Buffler PA, Wiencke JK. RAS mutation is associated with hyperdiploidy and parental characteristics in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Leukemia 2005;19(3):415-9.
Smith MT, McHale CM, Wiemels JL, Zhang L, Wiencke JK, Zheng S, Gunn L, Skibola CF, Ma X, Buffler PA. Molecular biomarkers for the study of childhood leukemia. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 2005;206(2):237-45.
Laso N, Mas S, Jose Lafuente M, Casterad X, Trias M, Ballesta A, Molina R, Salas J, Ascaso C, Zheng S, Wiencke JK, Lafuente A. Decrease in specific micronutrient intake in colorectal cancer patients with tumors presenting Ki-ras mutation. Anticancer Res 2004;24(3b):2011-20.
Moore LE, Wiencke JK, Bates MN, Zheng S, Rey OA, Smith AH. Investigation of genetic polymorphisms and smoking in a bladder cancer case-control study in Argentina. Cancer Lett 2004;211(2):199-207.
Zheng S, Ma X, Zhang L, Gunn L, Smith MT, Wiemels JL, Leung K, Buffler PA, Wiencke JK. Hypermethylation of the 5' CpG island of the FHIT gene is associated with hyperdiploid and translocation-negative subtypes of pediatric leukemia. Cancer Res 2004;64(6):2000-6.
Mas S, Laso N, Lafuente MJ, Lafuente A, Molina R, Ballesta A, Zheng S, Wiencke JK. Cancer, genes, and catechol estrogen metabolites. Int J Clin Oncol 2003;8(1):65-6.
Moore LE, Wiencke JK, Eng C, Zheng S, Smith A. Evaluation of buccal cell collection protocols for genetic susceptibility studies. Biomarkers 2001;6(6)448-454.