Rate My Professor Yuanyuan Zhang

Dr. Yuanyuan Zhang is a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy within the Faculty of Health and Medicine at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She completed her PhD at the same institution in September 2018, with a thesis titled 'Actin crosslinking protein α-actinin-4 (ACTN4) regulates receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) in melanoma,' supervised by Professor Xu Dong Zhang and Dr. Lei Jin. Her doctoral research investigated the role of ACTN4, an actin crosslinking protein, in regulating RIPK1-mediated signaling pathways in melanoma cells. Since 2019, she has held a postdoctoral position extending to 2025, contributing to various studies in cancer biology.

Yuanyuan Zhang's research focuses on molecular mechanisms underlying cancer progression, particularly the roles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and proteins in cell survival, quiescence, and therapy resistance. Key publications include 'LncRNA REG1CP promotes tumorigenesis through an enhancer complex to recruit FANCJ helicase for REG3A transcription' (2019), co-authored with Hessam Tabatabaee, Ting La, and others; 'Dual functions for OVAAL in initiation of RAF/MEK/ERK prosurvival signals and evasion of p27-mediated cellular senescence' (2018), with Ben Sang, Su Tang Guo, and Lei Jin; 'A p53-responsive miRNA network promotes cancer cell quiescence' (2018), with Margaret Farrelly, Nicole Cole, and Yuchen Feng; 'The N-Myc-responsive lncRNA MILIP promotes DNA double strand break repair' (2022); and 'The pan-cancer lncRNA PLANE regulates an alternative splicing program to promote cancer pathogenesis' (2025). Additional works cover epithelial-mesenchymal transition in cisplatin resistance in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells and visualization of p27 and Ki67 in quiescent cancer cells. Her contributions appear in journals such as Nature Communications and Cancer Research, highlighting impacts on understanding lncRNA functions in tumorigenesis and potential therapeutic targets in melanoma, breast cancer, and other malignancies.