Dr. Moon Shong Tang

Biography

For the past forty years, I have been working on uncovering the mechanisms by which important environmental agents, particularly tobacco smoke and sunlight, induce carcinogenesis. My research has focused on identifying the nature of DNA damage induced by these carcinogens, the distribution of DNA damage in relation to the p53 tumor suppressor gene and ras oncogenes, and the relationship between DNA damage and mutations. Through collaboration with Dr. Gerd Pfeifer at the Beckman Institute City of Hope, I developed UvrABC incision ligation-mediated PCR to map DNA damage at the sequence level, which has enabled me to achieve significant research goals. In the last decade, my work has extended to determining the health effects of electronic cigarette aerosols (ECA) and components such as nicotine and cotinine. Notably, I have found that E-cigarette use, along with nicotine and cotinine, induces carcinogenic effects, including the induction of g-OH-propano-dG and O 6 -methyl-dG and inhibition of DNA repair in both mice and human cells. Importantly, I discovered that ECA induces lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) in mice and found that nicotine and cotinine enhance SARS-CoV-2 infection pathways, contributing to lung injury.

Research Interests