The phosphatase PRL-3 drives ALL progression, Oncogenesis 2020

The lab’s first research manuscript is out! Min’s research defined the oncogenic role of PRL-3 phosphatase in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), which is a very progressive pediatric cancer and lacks targeted therapies. Our findings show that PRL-3 promotes T-ALL development/onset in zebrafish models and plays a role in engraftment in mouse xenograft models. Cell-culture based assays revealed that PRL-3 modulates Src signaling in T-ALL to enhance migratory capability. We also found that drugs that block PRL-3 activity can inhibit leukemia cell growth and migration, suggesting that PRL-3 is a feasible therapeutic target in T-ALL. There is increasing interest in developing PRL-3 inhibitors for use in solid tumors; our study indicates that they may be useful in T-ALL as well. Read our paper here! Wei et al. Oncogenesis, 9:6, 2020