Assoc. Prof. Lin, Valerie
Research in my lab focuses on the role of steroid hormone receptors in breast cancer. Estrogen receptors α (ERα) and progesterone receptors (PR) are transcription factors required for normal physiological processes including the development of the mammary gland, initiation and maintenance of pregnancy and modulation of both innate and adaptive immunity. ERα and PR also play key roles in breast cancer biology and can significantly impact how patients respond to breast cancer treatments. Currently, we are interested in (1) how the activity of PR can be modulated to induce cancer cell death and (2) how the modulatory activities of estrogen on neutrophil progenitors influence tumor induced neutrophil expansion and neutrophil driven metastasis.
Research Areas
Cancer Biology, Cancer Immunology
Project Officer
Project Officer
Project Officer
- Lee, S.H., Lim, C.L., Shen, W., Tan, S.M.X., Woo, A.R.E., Yap, Y.H.Y., Ang, C.A.S., Goh, W.W.B., Yu, W.-P., Li, L., and Lin, V.C.L. “Activation function 1 of progesterone receptor is required for progesterone antagonism of oestrogen action in the uterus.” BMC Biology 20, no. 1 (2022): 222. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-022-01410-3
- Bajalovic, N., Zuan, O.Y., Woo, A.R.E., Lee, S.H., and Lin, V.C.L. “High levels of progesterone receptor B in MCF-7 cells enable radical anti-tumoral and anti-estrogenic effect of progestin.” Biomedicines 10, no. 8 (2022): 1860. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines10081860
- Lim, C.L., and Lin, V.C.L. “Estrogen markedly reduces circulating low-density neutrophils and enhances pro-tumoral gene expression in neutrophil of tumour-bearing mice.” BMC Cancer 21, no. 1 (2021): 1017. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-021-08751-2
- Lim, C.L., Zuan, Y.O., Ong, Z., Chung, H.H., Hayashi, H., Shrestha, S., Chiba, S., Lin, F., and Lin, V.C.L. “Estrogen exacerbates mammary involution through neutrophil dependent and independent mechanisms.” eLife (2020). https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.57274
- Woo, A.R., Sze, S.K., Chung, H.H., and Lin, V.C.L. “Delineation of critical amino acids in activation function 1 of progesterone receptor for recruitment of transcription coregulators.” Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Gene Regulatory Mechanisms 1862, no. 4 (2019): 522–533. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagrm.2019.01.004