The AACR Sarcoma Research Fellowship represents an effort to encourage and support a postdoctoral or clinical research fellow to conduct translational or clinical sarcoma research and to establish a successful career path in this field.

2024 Grantee

Research

Synovial sarcoma (SS) is an aggressive soft-tissue sarcoma (STS) with very poor prognosis due to a high rate of metastasis and lack of effective therapeutics. SS is caused by a characteristic disease-causing oncoprotein termed SS18-SSX. Based on extensive preliminary results, Dr. Yu found a component of the MLL complex to be a unique dependency in SS. She aims to further dissect the functional interaction between this component and SS18-SSX, and determine whether pharmacological targeting of the MLL complex will be effective for treating aggressive, SS18-SSX-positive SS.

Biography

Dr. Yu received her doctorate in cell biology from Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2021. She is currently a postdoctoral associate at Duke University. Her current research aims to dissect and target chromatin dependencies in cancers, with a focus on synovial sarcoma and melanoma, by employing a set of integrated biochemical, genomics and oncology approaches.

Acknowledgment of Support

“The 2024 AACR Sarcoma Research Fellowship is crucial to me as it offers invaluable support to advance my dedication towards unraveling the complexities of synovial sarcoma. This opportunity fuels my passion to delve deeper and enables me to contribute meaningfully to sarcoma research.”