Tiantian Cui, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Tiantian Cui, M.D., Ph.D., graduated from Binzhou Medical University in 2005. In 2008, she attained her master’s degree and completed her residency in the Radiation Oncology Department at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. With a Ph.D. scholarship from the Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF, Germany), Dr. Cui joined Professor Iver Petersen's group at Fiedrich-Schiller University.
She attained her Ph.D. summa cum laude in 2011, working on the role of desmosome membrane proteins in human cancers. Her expertise lies in understanding molecular mechanisms of cancer initiation, progression and therapeutic resistance. Dr. Cui’s long research goal is to improve personalized cancer treatment by developing innovative and targeted strategies that result in better patient outcomes.
Novel biomarkers for responses of cancer therapeutics
Molecular mechanisms of cancer treatment resistance
2008-2011, Dr.med. (summa cum laude), Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
2005-2008, M.S., Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, China
2000-2005, B.S., Medicine, Binzhou Medical College, China
2020-present, Assistant Research Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, City of Hope, Duarte, California, U.S.
2020-2020, Interim Director-Radiation Biology Course, Department of Radiation Oncology, OSUCCC, U.S.
2020-2020, Research Scientist, Department of Radiation Oncology, OSUCCC, U.S.
2011-2013, Junior Project Leader, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
2016-2019, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Radiation Oncology, OSUCCC, USA
2014-2015, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Radiology, OSUMC, USA
2005-2008, Radiation Oncology Clinical Fellowship, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, China
2004-2005, Intern, Internal Medicine, Binzhou Medical College, China
2018, ASTRO-SANTRO Young Investigator Best Abstract Award
2017, Ohio State Cancer Connection Top News
2013, DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) conference and lecture travel scholarship
2012, Doctoral Thesis Award (Promotionspreis: Friedrich Schiller University Jena)
2011, Chinese government award for outstanding self-financed students abroad
2010, Best poster presentation in the third Postgraduate Symposium on Cancer research
2009, IZKF (Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Klinische Forschung) Scholarship
- Robb R, Kuo JC, Liu Y, Corrales-Guerrero S, Cui T, Hegazi A, Nagy G, Lee RJ, Williams TM. A novel protein-drug conjugate, SSH20, demonstrates significant efficacy in caveolin-1-expressing tumors. Mol Ther Oncolytics. 2021 Sep 24;22:555-564. doi: 10.1016/j.omto.2021.07.013. eCollection 2021 Sep 24. PubMed PMID: 34553040; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8433067.
- Cui T, Bell EH, McElroy J, Liu K, Sebastian E, Johnson B, Gulati PM, Becker AP, Gray A, Geurts M, Subedi D, Yang L, Fleming JL, Meng W, Barnholtz-Sloan JS, Venere M, Wang QE, Robe PA, Haque SJ, Chakravarti A. A Novel miR-146a-POU3F2/SMARCA5 Pathway Regulates Stemness and Therapeutic Response in Glioblastoma. Mol Cancer Res. 2021 Jan;19(1):48-60. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-20-0353. Epub 2020 Sep 24. PubMed PMID: 32973101; NIHMSID:NIHMS1647803.
- Kumar A, Rajasekera P, Beyer S, McElroy J, Grosu A, Biehn S, Cui T, Becker A, Johnson B, Sebastian E, Lindert S, Bell EH, Haque SJ, Chakravarti A. Pharmacological Targeting Of Transgelin-2 As A Novel Strategy Of Therapeutic Intervention In Glioblastoma. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2020.07.099.
- Singh K, Fleming J, Han C, Cui T, Johnson B, McElroy J, Bell EH, Robe P, Haque SJ, Chakravarti A. Targeting TRIBBLES1 (TRIB1) Pseudokinase in GBM: A New Therapeutic Strategy. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2020.07.1610.
- Liu L, Cai S, Han C, Banerjee A, Wu D, Cui T, Xie G, Zhang J, Zhang X, McLaughlin E, Yin M, Backes FJ, Chakravarti A, Zheng Y, Wang QE. ALDH1A1 Contributes to PARP Inhibitor Resistance via Enhancing DNA Repair in BRCA2-/- Ovarian Cancer Cells. Mol Cancer Ther. 2020 Jan;19(1):199-210. doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-19-0242. Epub 2019 Sep 18. PubMed PMID: 31534014; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6946874.
- Fabian D, Bell EH, McElroy J, Cui T, Fleming JL, Becker A, Geurts M, Jahar Haque SJ, Robe A, Chakravarti A. A preliminary comprehensive molecular-based nomogram for individualized estimation of survival in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma utilizing global microRNA expression data. September 2019. International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics 105(1):S143-S144.
- Haase D, Cui T, Yang L, Ma Y, Liu H, Theis B, Petersen I, Chen Y. Plakophilin 1 is methylated and has a tumor suppressive activity in human lung cancer. Exp Mol Pathol. 2019 Jun;108:73-79. doi: 10.1016/j.yexmp.2019.04.001. Epub 2019 Apr 1. PubMed PMID: 30946843.
- Cui T, Yang L, Ma Y, Petersen I, Chen Y. Desmocollin 3 has a tumor suppressive activity through inhibition of AKT pathway in colorectal cancer. Exp Cell Res. 2019 May 15;378(2):124-130. doi: 10.1016/j.yexcr.2019.03.015. Epub 2019 Mar 8. PubMed PMID: 30857973.
- Cui T*, Srivastava AK*, Banerjee A*, Han C, Cai S, Liu L, Wu D, Cui R, Li Z, Zhang X, Xie G, Selvendiran K, Patnaik S, Karpf AR, Liu J, Cohn DE, Wang QE. Inhibition of miR-328-3p Impairs Cancer Stem Cell Function and Prevents Metastasis in Ovarian Cancer. Cancer Res. 2019 May 1;79(9):2314-2326. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-18-3668. Epub 2019 Mar 20. PubMed PMID: 30894370; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6777340.
- Cui T, Bell EH, McElroy J, Becker AP, Gulati PM, Geurts M, Mladkova N, Gray A, Liu K, Yang L, Liu Z, Fleming JL, Haque SJ, Barnholtz-Sloan JS, Ligon KL, Beroukhim R, Robe P, Chakravarti A. miR-4516 predicts poor prognosis and functions as a novel oncogene via targeting PTPN14 in human glioblastoma. Oncogene. 2019 Apr;38(16):2923-2936. doi: 10.1038/s41388-018-0601-9. Epub 2018 Dec 17. PubMed PMID: 30559405; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6497411.
- Becker A, Bell EH, McElroy J, Cui T, Geurts M, Liu Z, Haque SJ, Robe P, Chakravarti A. MGMT Protein Expression Adds Prognostic Value Beyond MGMT Promoter Methylation and Stratifies Survival Prognoses of Un-Methylated Glioblastoma Patients. November 2018. International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics 102(3):S47. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2018.06.093.
- Beyer SJ, Bell EH, McElroy JP, Fleming JL, Cui T, Becker A, Bassett E, Johnson B, Gulati P, Popp I, Staszewski O, Prinz M, Grosu AL, Haque SJ, Chakravarti A. Oncogenic transgelin-2 is differentially regulated in isocitrate dehydrogenase wild-type vs. mutant gliomas. Oncotarget. 2018 Dec 14;9(98):37097-37111. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.26365. eCollection 2018 Dec 14. PubMed PMID: 30647847; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6324682.
- Cui T, Srivastava AK, Han C, Wu D, Wani N, Liu L, Gao Z, Qu M, Zou N, Zhang X, Yi P, Yu J, Bell EH, Yang SM, Maloney DJ, Zheng Y, Wani AA, Wang QE. DDB2 represses ovarian cancer cell dedifferentiation by suppressing ALDH1A1. Cell Death Dis. 2018 May 1;9(5):561. doi: 10.1038/s41419-018-0585-y. PubMed PMID: 29752431; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5948213.
- Srivastava AK, Rizvi A, Cui T, Han C, Banerjee A, Naseem I, Zheng Y, Wani AA, Wang QE. Depleting ovarian cancer stem cells with calcitriol. Oncotarget. 2018 Mar 6;9(18):14481-14491. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.24520. eCollection 2018 Mar 6. PubMed PMID: 29581858; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5865684.
- Zhou G, Yang L, Gray A, Srivastava AK, Li C, Zhang G, Cui T. The role of desmosomes in carcinogenesis. Onco Targets Ther. 2017;10:4059-4063. doi: 10.2147/OTT.S136367. eCollection 2017. Review. PubMed PMID: 28860814; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5565390.
- Zou N, Xie G, Cui T, Srivastava AK, Qu M, Yang L, Wei S, Zheng Y, Wang QE. DDB2 increases radioresistance of NSCLC cells by enhancing DNA damage responses. Tumour Biol. 2016 Oct;37(10):14183-14191. doi: 10.1007/s13277-016-5203-y. Epub 2016 Aug 23. PubMed PMID: 27553023; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6528175.
- Vogler N, Bocklitz T, Subhi Salah F, Schmidt C, Bräuer R, Cui T, Mireskandari M, Greten FR, Schmitt M, Stallmach A, Petersen I, Popp J. Systematic evaluation of the biological variance within the Raman based colorectal tissue diagnostics. J Biophotonics. 2016 May;9(5):533-41. doi: 10.1002/jbio.201500237. Epub 2015 Dec 20. PubMed PMID: 26687775.
- Qu MH, Han C, Srivastava AK, Cui T, Zou N, Gao ZQ, Wang QE. miR-93 promotes TGF-β-induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition through downregulation of NEDD4L in lung cancer cells. Tumour Biol. 2016 Apr;37(4):5645-51. doi: 10.1007/s13277-015-4328-8. Epub 2015 Nov 18. PubMed PMID: 26581907; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6528179.
- Han C, Srivastava AK, Cui T, Wang QE, Wani AA. Differential DNA lesion formation and repair in heterochromatin and euchromatin. Carcinogenesis. 2016 Feb;37(2):129-38. doi: 10.1093/carcin/bgv247. Epub 2015 Dec 30. PubMed PMID: 26717995; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5006209.
- Cui T*, Zhao R*, Han C, Zhang X, He J, Srivastava AK, Yu J, Wani AA, Wang QE. DDB2 modulates TGF-β signal transduction in human ovarian cancer cells by downregulating NEDD4L. Nucleic Acids Res. 2015 Sep 18;43(16):7838-49. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkv667. Epub 2015 Jun 29. PubMed PMID: 26130719; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4652750.