Research Overview

Dr. Rui has made a series of contributions to increased understanding of the molecular mechanisms of signal transduction by receptors for prolactin and related cytokines and hormones. Dr. Rui was the first to isolate a prolactin receptor-associated tyrosine kinase, and to identify this molecule as Janus kinase-2. Dr. Rui’s laboratory has maintained a focus on prolactin receptor function with a primary goal of understanding the role of downstream Jak-Stat pathways and their aberrations in breast cancer.

Dr. Rui’s Laboratory is currently focused on mechanistic identification of aberrant Jak-Stat signal transduction during human breast cancer progression that the laboratory has discovered.  Progress includes recognition of the prolactin-induced Jak2-Stat5 pathway as a pro-differentiation pathway in human breast cancer, which during progression of human breast cancer is aberrantly regulated. Activation of Stat5 is a highly favorable prognostic marker in node-negative breast cancer and an invasion-suppressive role of Stat5 in human breast cancer may explain the mechanism of the favorable prognosis associated with active Stat5 in early stage breast cancer. Dr. Rui and his team have also invented and applied a new technology to generate high density tissue arrays for high-through-put in situ biomarker studies.  Dr. Rui is the PI of a $6.7 million, 5 year Komen Promise Grant to classify breast cancer tumors based on expression of druggable target proteins for improved personalized cancer care.

Thomas Jefferson Kimmel Cancer Center

Rui Lab