2004 - 2009     M.D., Clinical Medicine, Weifang Medical University, China                     

2009 - 2014     Ph.D., Ophthalmology, Wenzhou Medical University, China

2015 - 2016     Research associate, Vision Science Research Center, Wenzhou Medical University, China

2016 – 2018    Postdoctoral Fellow, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Laboratory of Dr. Thomas J. Hornyak.

2019 – 2021    Postdoctoral Fellow, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Laboratory of Dr. Jiayuh Lin.

My graduate and early postdoctoral research focused on pigment cell biology, and it involves the use of multiple functional genomic approaches to investigate melanocyte and melanocyte stem cell proliferation and differentiation in gene knockout mouse models. Currently, I’m using in vitro and in vivo approaches to evaluate the anti-tumor effects of novel IL-6/GP130/STAT3 inhibitors in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and medulloblastoma.

Pigment cell biology, Cancer cell biology, IL-6 signaling, STAT3, Small-Molecular inhibitor, Triple-Negative breast cancer

1. Pan L, Chen X, Rassool FV, Li C, Lin J*. (2022) LLL12B, a Novel Small-Molecule STAT3 Inhibitor, Induces Apoptosis and Suppresses Cell Migration and Tumor Growth in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells. Biomedicines. 10(8), 2003.

2. Pan L, Zhang R, Ma L, Pierson CR, Finlay JL, Li C, Lin J*. (2021) STAT3 inhibitor in combination with irradiation significantly inhibits cell viability, cell migration, invasion and tumorsphere growth of human medulloblastoma cells. Cancer Biol Ther. 2021 Sep 2;22(7-9):430-439.

3. Chen X, Pan L, Wei J, Zhang R, Yang X, Song J, Bai RY, Fu S, Pierson CR, Finlay JL, Li C, Lin J*. (2021) LLL12B, a small molecule STAT3 inhibitor, induces growth arrest, apoptosis, and enhances cisplatin-mediated cytotoxicity in medulloblastoma cells. Sci Rep. 2021; 11: 6517.

4. Pan L, Chen X, Fu S, Yu W, Li C, Wang T, Lo HW, Lin J*. (2020) LLY17, a novel small molecule STAT3 inhibitor induces apoptosis and suppresses cell migration and tumor growth in triple-negative breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat. May;181(1):31-41.

5. Tandukar B, Joshi SS, Pan L, Hornyak TJ*. (2020) Complementary In Vivo Approaches Reveal Quiescent Melanocytes in Anagen Outside the Hair Follicle Bulge. BioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.27.117051

6. Joshi SS, Tandukar B, Pan L, Huang JM, Livak F, Smith BJ, Hodges T, Mahurkar AA, Hornyak TJ*. (2019) CD34 defines melanocyte stem cell subpopulations with distinct regenerative properties. PLoS Genet. Apr 24;15(4): e1008034.

7. Tian J, Chen X, Fu S, Zhang R, Pan L, Cao Y, Wu X, Xiao H, Lin HJ, Lo HW, Zhang Y, Lin J*. (2019) Bazedoxifene is a novel IL-6/GP130 inhibitor for treating triple-negative breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat. Mar 9. doi: 10.1007/s10549-019-05183-2.

8. Pan L, Ma X, Wen B, Su Z, Li H, Chen Y, Wang J, Lu F, Qu J, Hou L*. (2015) Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor/T-box factor Tbx2 axis acts through Cyclin D1 to regulate melanocyte proliferation. Cell Proliferation. 48(6):631-42.