Guangwen “Gary” Ren

To study tumor microenvironment and tumor immunology in cancer therapeutic resistance and metastatic relapse

My group mainly focuses on elucidating how mesenchymal lineage cells (mesenchymal stem cells and fibroblasts) and immune-regulatory myeloid cells (neutrophils and macrophages) modulate the adaptive immune responses in cancer treatment resistance and metastatic relapse. These studies will fully take advantage of the unique research platform–patient-derived xenograft (PDX) tumors in humanized mouse models at The Jackson Laboratory, with the research goal to develop novel strategies targeting tumor microenvironment to improve the efficacies of conventional cancer therapies and new therapeutics such as immunotherapy.

Selected Publications

  • Gong Z, Li Q, Shi J, Ren G. An Artifact in Intracellular Cytokine Staining for Studying T Cell Responses and Its Alleviation. Front Immunol. 2022 Jan 21;13:759188. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.759188.
  • Li P, Lu M, Shi J, Gong Z, Hua L, Li Q, Lim B, Zhang XF, Chen X, Li S, Shultz LD, Ren G. Lung mesenchymal cells elicit lipid storage in neutrophils that fuel breast cancer lung metastasis. Nat Immunol, 2020 Nov;21(11):1444-1455. PMID: 32958928
  • Li P, Lu M, Shi J, Hua L, Gong Z, Li Q, Shultz LD, Ren G. Dual roles of neutrophils in metastatic colonization are governed by the host immune system integrity. Nat Commun, 2020 Sep 1;11(1):4387. PMID: 32873795
  • Li P, Gong Z, Shultz LD, Ren G. Mesenchymal stem cells: From regeneration to cancer. Pharmacol Ther (invited review). 2019; 200:42-54. PMID: 30998940
  • Ren G, Kang Y. A one-two punch of miR-126/126* against metastasis. Nature Cell Biology. 2013 Mar 1;15(3):231-3.
  • Ren G, Esposito MB, Kang Y. Bone metastasis and the metastatic niche. Journal of Molecular Medicine.  2015 Nov;93(11):1203-12.
  • Ren G, Zhao X, Wang Y, Zhang X, Chen X, Xu C, Yuan ZR, Roberts AI, Zhang L, Zheng B, Wen T, Han Y, Rabson AB, Tischfield JA, Shao C, Shi Y. CCR2-Dependent Recruitment of Macrophages by Tumor-Educated Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Promotes Tumor Development and Is Mimicked by TNFα. Cell Stem Cell. 2012 Dec 7;11(6):812-24.
  • Shi Y*, Su J, Roberts AI, Shou P, Rabson AB, Ren G* (corresponding author). How mesenchymal stem cells interact with tissue immune responses. Trends in Immunology. 2012 Mar;33(3):136-43 (cover).
  • Ren G, Liu Y, Zhao X, Zheng B, Yuan Z, Zhang L, Qu X, Tischfield JA, Shao C and Shi Y. Tumor Resident Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Endow Naïve Stromal Cells with Tumor-promoting Properties. Oncogene, 2014 Jul 24;33(30):4016-20.