Researching how a virus affects aggressive skin cancer
Merkel cell carcinoma is an aggressive and often fatal form of skin cancer. Weng-Onn Lui intends to find out how the Merkel cell polyomavirus influences tumour growth and the development of treatment resistance. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 3 October.
Text: Karin Tideström, for KI’s installation ceremony booklet 2024
What are you researching?
“I research Merkel cell cancer, an uncommon and extremely aggressive, often fatal, form of skin cancer. The majority of cases are caused by a virus, the Merkel cell polyomavirus, which can infect the skin. My main focus is on understanding how this virus affects tumour growth and the immune system. I also want to find out how the metastases act and how they respond to immunotherapy. We’re also exploring potential biomarkers that can indicate the spread of disease and predict how a patient will respond to immunotherapy.”
Why is this important?
“There is currently no effective treatment option for metastatic Merkel cell cancer. Immunotherapy is the most promising alternative, but only half of the patients have any lasting response to the treatment. Our objective is to understand how the virus affects tumour growth and the development of treatment resistance. If we can find biomarkers able to predict the response to immunotherapy, we’ll also be able to find the patients who will benefit from the treatment and separate them from those who could require other interventions.”
What are your most important findings to date?
“In one of our studies, we’ve discovered several strategies that the virus uses to protect the viral protein from degradation and that keep the tumour cells alive and active. We’re also studying the molecular differences between patients who have a metastasised disease and those who do not, and between those who do and do not respond to immunotherapy. This has enabled us to identify a number of key factors that can affect the spread of tumours and the response to treatment."
About Weng-Onn Lui
Professor of Experimental Oncology at the Department of Oncology-Pathology
Weng-Onn Lui was born in 1972 in Gopeng, Malaysia. He took his degree in natural sciences from Tunku Abdul Rahman College in Malaysia in 1996 and his PhD at Karolinska Institutet in 2002. After postdoc studies at the Stanford School of Medicine, USA, between 2004 and 2008, he returned to Karolinska Institutet, where he began to establish his research group. He was made docent in 2014 and senior lecturer in 2016. Weng-Onn Lui was appointed Professor of Experimental Oncology at Karolinska Institutet on 1 July 2024.