Sissy M. Jhiang

About

Sissy M. Jhiang is a professor whose research focuses on the actin cytoskeleton in health and disease, with particular interest in its role in cellular processes such as muscle contraction, organelle transport, cell division, migration, and invasion. Her work investigates how actin and actin-binding proteins, such as plastins, contribute to normal cellular functions and the pathogenesis of diseases, including cancer and hereditary conditions like osteoporosis. She has made significant contributions to understanding the regulation of plastins through phosphorylation and interactions with protein partners, and how these mechanisms influence actin organization in various cellular structures. Her research extends to the study of bacterial toxins that target the actin cytoskeleton, elucidating pathogenic mechanisms of toxins from bacteria such as Vibrio cholerae and Photorhabdus luminescens. She has explored how these toxins modify actin, interfere with cytoskeletal proteins, and contribute to bacterial virulence. Additionally, her work involves developing strategies for selective ablation of cancer cells using bacterial toxins and understanding how human defensins can inactivate bacterial toxins and viral proteins by targeting their thermodynamic properties. Her interdisciplinary approach employs biochemical, biophysical, structural, and cell biology methods, and she collaborates with experts across various fields to advance understanding of actin-related cellular processes and…

Research topics

• Internal medicine
• Medicine
• Cancer research
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Oncology
• Nuclear medicine
• Endocrinology
• Pharmacology
• Biochemistry

Selected publications

• Na+/I− symporter expression, function, and regulation in non-thyroidal tissues and impact on thyroid cancer therapy

  Endocrine Related Cancer · 2021 · 16 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  For the past 80 years, radioiodine (131I) has been used to ablate thyroid tissue not removed by surgery or to treat differentiated thyroid cancer that has metastasized to other parts of the body. However, the Na+/I- symporter (NIS), which mediates active iodide uptake into thyroid follicular cells, is also expressed in several non-thyroidal tissues. This NIS expression permits 131I accumulation and radiation damage in these non-target tissues, which accounts for the adverse effects of radioiodin…

  DOI

• Combined Vorinostat and Chloroquine Inhibit Sodium–Iodide Symporter Endocytosis and Enhance Radionuclide Uptake <i>In Vivo</i>

  Clinical Cancer Research · 2023 · 15 citations

  PURPOSE: Patients with aggressive thyroid cancer are frequently failed by the central therapy of ablative radioiodide (RAI) uptake, due to reduced plasma membrane (PM) localization of the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS). We aimed to understand how NIS is endocytosed away from the PM of human thyroid cancer cells, and whether this was druggable in vivo. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Informed by analysis of endocytic gene expression in patients with aggressive thyroid cancer, we used mutagenesis, NanoBiT int…

  DOI

• Prospects for Redifferentiating Agents in the Use of Radioactive Iodine Therapy for Thyroid Cancer

  Thyroid · 2020 · 7 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Disulfiram metabolite Cu(DDC)₂ enhances radionuclide uptake in vivo revealing insights into tumoural ablation resistance

  University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) · 2026-01-26

  article

  <b>Background</b> Exploitation of the sodium iodide symporter (NIS) has potentially broad clinical application across different tumour ablative settings but often fails in aggressive cancer due to diminished transport activity. We aimed to discover whether enhancing NIS function by modulating proteostasis was targetable<i> in vivo</i>, as well as the clinical relevance to radioiodide (RAI) treatment of patients with cancer.<br/><br/><b>Methods</b> We used 3D modelling, iterative design, reformul…

  Publisher

• Disulfiram metabolite Cu(DDC)2 enhances radionuclide uptake in vivo revealing insights into tumoural ablation resistance

  EBioMedicine · 2026-02-11

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Exploitation of the sodium iodide symporter (NIS) has potentially broad clinical application across different tumour ablative settings but often fails in aggressive cancer due to diminished transport activity. We aimed to discover whether enhancing NIS function by modulating proteostasis was targetable in vivo, as well as the clinical relevance to radioiodide (RAI) treatment of patients with cancer. METHODS: /SzJ (NSG) breast cancer. FINDINGS: elicited a dual effect on NIS function,…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant S10RR019252

  NIH · $700k · 2008

• NIH Grant R29CA060074

  NIH · $504k · 1998

• NIH Grant R21CA108876

  NIH · $269k · 2007

Frequent coauthors

• Matthew D. Ringel

  The Ohio State University

  60 shared

• Kristien Boelaert

  34 shared

• Martin L. Read

  33 shared

• Moray J. Campbell

  33 shared

• Katie Brookes

  33 shared

• Philip J. Blower

  32 shared

• Christopher J. McCabe

  32 shared

• Kavitha Sunassee

  32 shared

Similar researchers at Ohio State University

• Sandor Gyorkeh-74
• Vadim Fedorovh-53
• Isabelle Deschenesh-44