64881-Shen, Jia

Jia Shen, PhD

Assistant Professor of Medical & Molecular Genetics

Phone
(812) 855-4724
Address
Biology Building 202
MSCI
BL
Bloomington, IN

Bio

Dr. Shen’s laboratory utilizes patient-derived tumor samples and integrates bioinformatic and experimental approaches, including functional genomics, single-cell omics, spatial omics, mouse models, and drug screening, to develop mechanism-based therapeutic strategies for aggressive brain cancers such as adult glioblastoma (GBM) and pediatric diffuse midline glioma (DMG). Dr. Shen worked as a drug development scientist at AstraZeneca before completing postdoctoral training at the NCI-designated Cancer Center at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla, California, where his research focused on cancer immunotherapy and translational drug discovery. In 2023, Dr. Shen joined the Indiana University School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics and the Medical Sciences Program at IU Bloomington.

Shen Lab: https://sites.google.com/view/shen-laboratory/welcome 

Key Publications

Recent Publications:

  • Li C, Xie Q, Ghosh S, Cao B, Du Y, Vo GV, Huang TY, Spruck C, Carpenter RL, Wang YA, Lu QR, Nephew KP, Shen J. SUV39H1 maintains cancer stem cell chromatin state and properties in glioblastoma. JCI Insight. 2025 Mar 10;10(5).
  • Xie Q, Du Y, Ghosh S, Rajendran S, Cohen-Gadol AA, Baizabal JM, Nephew KP, Han L, Shen J. Multi-omics analysis identifies glioblastoma dependency on H3K9me3 methyltransferase activity. NPJ Precis Oncol. 2025 Mar 20;9(1):78.
  • Poorva P, Mast J, Cao B, Shah MV, Pollok KE, Shen J. Killing the killers: Natural killer cell therapy targeting glioma stem cells in high-grade glioma. Mol Ther. 2025 Mar 3:S1525-0016(25)00168-6.
  • Cao B, Xie Q, Li C, Mast J, Hamdouchi C, Grese T, Shen J. SUV39H2 is a therapeutic vulnerability in glioblastoma stem cells enhanced by co-targeting SUV39H1. Epigenomics. 2025 Dec 17(17):1225-1232. 
  • Cao B, Liu M, Xiao Z, Leng D, Zhou Y, Zhang Z, Wang L, Huang X, Ni Q, Cheng W, Assaraf YG, Zhao Q*, Shen J*, Zhu K*. CV1-secreting sCAR-T cells potentiate the abscopal effect of microwave ablation in heterogeneous tumors. Cell Rep Med. 2025 Feb 18;6(2):101965. *: co-corresponding authors
  • Du Y, Metcalfe S, Akunapuram S, Ghosh S, Spruck C, Richardson AM, Cohen-Gadol AA, Shen J. Image-based assessment of natural killer cell activity against glioblastoma stem cells. FEBS Open Bio. 2024; 14(6):1028-1034.

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