Haifa Shen M.D. Ph.D.

Haifa Shen, M.D., Ph.D.

	Haifa Shen M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Member Department of Nanomedicine The Methodist Hospital Research Institute Assistant Professor Department of Cell and Developmental Biology Weill Cornell Medical College E-mail: hshen@tmhs.org Phone: 713-441-7321 Fax:713-441-7438
Education

Biography

Dr. Shen earned his M.D. from Zhejiang University Medical School of Hangzhou, China in 1985, and his Ph. D. from the University of Texas at Houston in 1997. After completing a four-year postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, he worked on drug development at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals. He returned to the University of Texas at Houston Medical School as an assistant professor before becoming a member of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute in 2010.

Description of Research

Dr. Shen’s research interest is in the development of cancer therapeutics.  His research approach combines drug chemistry and formulation, nanotechnology, and cancer biology.  His research team has developed porous silicon microparticle-based drug carriers to specifically deliver chemotherapy drugs and gene-silencing agents such as siRNA and microRNA to tumor tissues for effective treatment of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and pancreatic cancer.  They have also successfully developed immune therapy for cancer prevention and treatment. 

Major Areas of Research

Drug delivery, experimental cancer therapy, cancer vaccine, and nanotechnology

Recent Publications

Shen H, Rodriguez-Aguayo C, Xu R, Liu X, Sood AK, Ferrari M, Lopez-Berestein G. Enhancing chemotherapy response with sustained EphA2 silencing using multistage vector delivery. Clin Cancer Res. 2013 Feb 5. PMID: 23386691

Xu R, Huang Y, Guo X, Koay EJ, Liu X, Ferrari M, Shen H.  Multistage Vectored siRNA Targeting Ataxia-Telangiectasia Mutated for Breast Cancer Therapy. Small. 2013 Jan 6. doi: 10.1002/smll.201201510.  PMID: 23293085

Yang Y, Wolfram J, Shen H, Fang X, Ferrari M.  Hesperetin: An inhibitor of the transforming growth factor (TGF-b) signaling pathway. Eur J Med Chem. 2012 Dec;58:390-5. PMID: 23153811

Fan J, Huang Y, Finoulst I, Wu H, Deng Z, Xu R, Xia X, Ferrari M, Shen H, Hu Y.  Serum peptidomic biomarkers for pulmonary metastatic melanoma identified by means of a nanopore-based assay.  Cancer Lett. 2012 Nov 27.  PMID: 23200677

Yang Y, Wolfram J, Boom K, Fang X, Shen H, Ferrari M.  Hesperetin impairs glucose uptake and inhibits proliferation of breast cancer cells.  Cell Biochem Funct. 2012 Oct 8. DOI: 10.1002/cbf.2905.  PMID: 23042260

Shen H, Sun T, Ferrari M.  Nanovector delivery of siRNA for cancer therapy. Cancer Gene Ther. 2012 Jun;19(6):367-73.  PMID: 22555511

Fan J, Deng X, Gallagher JW, Huang Y, Wen J, Ferrari M, Shen H, Hu Y.  Monitoring the progression of metastatic breast cancer on nanoporous silica chips.  Philos Transact A Math Phys Eng Sci. 2012 May 28;370(1967):2433-2447.  PMID: 22509065

Shen H, You J, Zhang G, Ziemys A, Li Q, Bai L, Deng X, Erm DR, Liu X, Li C, Ferrari M.  Cooperative, nanoparticle-enabled thermal therapy of breast cancer.  Adv Healthcare Mater. 2012 Jan 11;1(1):84-89. DOI: 10.1002/adhm.201100005