Cancer cell biology laboratory is organized by Prof. Eok-soo Oh and located in Science Building C in Ewha Womans university campus. Our lab includes 6 students and 2 post-docs and has various research topics to develop. Our research is directed towards understanding the regulation and function of the adhesion receptors which play a central role in the migration-related human diseases including cancers (e.g. colon and breast cancers) and skin pigmentation disorders (e.g. vitiligo).

In particular, we are interested in cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans, syndecans and signaling molecules that cooperate in the regulation of inflammation, inflammation-mediated EMT and cancers. Accordingly, we focus on (1) regulatory roles of syndecan transmembrane domain, which our lab has discovered as important regulator of syndecan-mediated signal transduction, (2) extracellular domain shedding of syndecans which is important in inflammation-induced cancer development, and (3) syndecan-binding adaptors in context of inflammation-mediated EMT, cancer cell stemness and cancer development. We also investigate the molecular mechanisms that underlie by which syndecans modulate melanogenesis in physiological and pathological conditions. Specifically, we are examining the molecular mechanisms that regulate melanin synthesis by syndecan-2 and searching natural products regulating melanin synthesis to be used for clinical therapeutic agents against pigmentation-associated diseases.