Jian Yu Rao

Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California Los Angeles

310.794.1567

Laboratory Address:
Factor 10-655

Mailing Address:
UCLA Path & Lab Med
BOX 951732, 10-952 Factor Bldg.
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Fax Number:
310.825.7795

Work Address:
Factor 10-952
CAMPUS - 173216
CA

Work Phone Number:
310-206-8477x15090

UC Profile

Affiliations

Chief, Cytopathology, Gynecologic Pathology
Member, Biochemistry, Biophysics & Structural Biology GPB Home Area, California NanoSystems Institute, JCCC Molecular Epidemiology Program Area, Molecular Pharmacology GPB Home Area
Faculty, BWF-IT-MD, Center for Metabolic Disease Prevention
 

Research Interests

The research in my laboratory is focused on developing biomarkers that can be used for individual risk assessment, early detection, and therapeutic monitoring of cancer. To reach this goal, we have two specific research areas: The first area of research is to study the molecular basis of tumor morphogenesis, we focus our effort on investigating how cytoskeletal proteins, specifically the microfilament actin and the associated binding proteins, are altered in tumorigenesis. We hypothesize that since tumor cells have morphological features that are distinctive from normal cells, and since actin family proteins play important roles in regulating cell morphology, adhesion, as well as motility, investigating these protein changes during tumorigenesis will not only provide molecular insight for tumor morphology, but at the same time develop surrogate markers that are more sensitive and specific than morphological analysis alone. Since actin network is regulated by multiple complex oncogenic signal transduction events, including Ras superfamily small G proteins Rac/Rho/Cdc42, and Src family proteins, and many of these proteins have been developed as the potential therapeutic targets, it is possible that an actin centric strategy for cancer detection/monitoring/prevention/therapy can be developed in he future. Our second area of research is to develop approaches that can be used to detect early malignant lesions, especially cancer of the breast, bladder, and prostate. The detection of low stage malignant and premalignant lesions is essential for the successful halt, or even the reversion of malignant progression through chemoprevention strategy. The focus will be to develop simple, high throughput techniques that can be used to detect expressional abnormalities of multiple genes on a small sample volume basis. One specific example is to develop Quantitative Fluorescence Image Analysis (QFIA) as a single-cell proteomic method for biomarker analysis on cytological materials.
 

Biography

Dr. J Rao is an internationally renowned cytopathologist and established investigator in cancer molecular epidemiology and biomarker studies. Prior to be a pathologist, he was already an established molecular epidemiologist involved in multiple high profile cancer prevention studies. He completed his anatomic/clinical pathology residency and cytopathology fellowship at UCLA, and joined the UCLA Department of Pathology as a faculty in 1999. Dr. J. Rao is a full professor and the director of Cytopathology, the director of gynecological pathology, and the medical director of cytotechnology school. He has dual appointments in pathology and epidemiology. He is particularly well known for urine cytology, especially in utilizing biomarkers as adjunct for detecting bladder cancer. He has been invited to be a speaker for over 100 meetings and occasions locally, nationally and internationally for topics including cancer chemoprevention, biomarkers, urine cytology, Fine Needle Aspiration cytology, and gynecological pathology. Dr. Rao has an active role in teaching and research, with continuous funding from NIH or other agencies for cancer biomarker and prevention studies in the last 20 years, with over 100 peer-reviewed research publications. He is also interested in developing new technologies for pathology especially cytopathology, including imaging analysis, nanotechnology and telepathology.

Publications