Haojie Huang
Senior/corresponding author of a 2026 Nature Communications study identifying the SPOP–ZMYND8–NEK7 mechanism of mTOR-inhibitor resistance in kidney cancer
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology & Professor of Urology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, MN
Haojie Huang is a professor at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, jointly appointed in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and in Urology. His lab has worked on prostate cancer biology and molecular oncology since the 1990s, with a long-standing focus on androgen-receptor signaling, phosphorylation pathways and the epigenetic and transcriptional mechanisms of cancer cell growth.
In this Atlas he is senior/corresponding author of a 2026 Nature Communications study on why kidney cancer cells become resistant to mTOR inhibitors such as everolimus and temsirolimus. The work traces resistance to an SPOP-driven ubiquitination switch on the histone reader ZMYND8, which turns on the kinase NEK7 as an escape route around blocked mTOR signaling, and shows that a NEK7-targeting PROTAC restores drug sensitivity in mice.
Milestones in the Atlas
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | A | SPOP-mediated ZMYND8 ubiquitination and phase separation exclusion drives mTOR inhibitor resistance in kidney cancer TAN2026 Senior/corresponding author identifying a SPOP-ZMYND8-NEK7 mechanism of resistance to mTOR inhibitors (everolimus/temsirolimus) in kidney cancer, and validating a NEK7-targeting PROTAC that restores drug sensitivity in cells and mice. |