Work Experience
Dr. Fei Lan received his Bachelor degree in Biochemistry from Fudan University in 1999, and Master degree in Molecular Cancer Biology from Fudan Medical School in 2002. Then, he came to Dr. Yang Shi’s lab in Harvard Medical School to study epigenetics and obtained his Ph.D. degree from Harvard University in 2008. In the same year, he joined the Constellation Pharmaceuticals Inc., a startup biotech aiming to develop novel epigenetics drugs in oncology and immunology, as the founding scientist. By the end 2012, Dr. Lan returned to China and joined the Institutes of Biomedical Sciences (IBS) of Fudan University, becoming an independent Principle Investigator.
Research Interests
He has more than 15 years of experience in epigenetics research, especially in the field of the dynamic regulation of histone methylation. In his Ph.D. study, using biochemistry approach, he discovered several families of histone lysine demethylases and the first reader protein that specifically recognizes the demethylated form of histone lysine residue.
As independent PI, his research group recently discovered a histone demethylase complex containing ZMYND8/RACK7 and KDM5C-LSD1 in regulating the over-activated enhancers by shaping the dynamics of H3K4me3/H3K4me1 ratio, and revealed how the process is coupled with tumor invasion. His research also led to the finding of a tumor suppressor protein, BS69/ZMYND11, as a histone variant H3.3 specific reader connecting H3.3K36me3 and mRNA intron retention.
Awards
1. a representative of the BBS PhD program, profiled in “2007 Dean’s Report” of Harvard Medical School.
2. Tan Jiazhen Discovery Award（ 2016）
3. VCAN BIOMED Discovery Award （2017）
4. The work on enhancer over-activation in cancer cell invasion was selected as “the TOP 10 Medical Advancements in China” of 2016
Selected Publications
1. Ma C, Karwacki-Neisius V, Tang H, Li W, Shi Z, Hu H, Xu W, Wang Z, Kong L, Lv R, Fan Z, Zhou W, Yang P, Wu F, Diao J, Tan L, Shi YG,Lan F*, Shi Y*. Nono, a Bivalent Domain Factor, Regulates Erk Signaling and Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Pluripotency.Cell Rep. 2016 Oct 18;17(4):997-1007. (* Correspondence)
2. Shen H, Xu W, Guo R, 1 Rong B, Gu L, Wang Z, He C, Zheng L, Hu X, Shao Z-M, Yang PY, Wu FZ, Shi YG, Shi Y* andLan F*. Suppression of Enhancer Over-activation by a RACK7-Histone Demethylase Complex.Cell2016 Apr 7;165(2):331-42. (* Correspondence)
3. Guo, R., Zheng, LJ., Park, J.W., Xu, WQ., Chen, H., Qiu, JS., Lv RT., Wang, ZT., Yang, PY., Wu, FZ., Shi, XB., Fu, XD., Shi, G.YJ., Xing, Y*.,Lan, F*., and Shi, Y*. BS69/ZMYND11 Reads and Connects Histone H3.3 Lysine 36 Trimethylation-Decorated Chromatin to Regulated Pre-mRNA Processing.Mol Cell. 2014 Oct 23;56(2):298-310. (* Correspondence)
4.Lan F, Bayliss PE, Rinn JL, Whetstine JR, Wang JK, Chen S, Iwase S, Alpatov R, Issaeva I, Canaani E, Roberts TM, Chang HY, Shi Y. A histone H3 lysine 27 demethylase regulates animal posterior development.Nature(Article). 2007 Oct 11;449(7163):689-94. Epub 2007 Sep 12.
5.Lan F*, Collins RE*, De Cegli R, Alpatov R, Horton JR, Shi X, Gozani O, Cheng X, Shi Y. Recognition of unmethylated histone H3 lysine 4 links BHC80 to LSD1-mediated gene repression.Nature. 2007 Aug 9;448(7154):718-22. (* Co-first)
