Mingjie Lu

Dr. Mingjie Lu


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

5Years (2022-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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SMSwarna Mahadevan
Swarna Mahadevan
KKKenelm Kwong
Kenelm Kwong
MLMingjie Lu
Mingjie Lu
EKElizabeth Kelly
Elizabeth Kelly
Belal ChamiBelal Chami
Belal Chami
Hans ZoellnerHans Zoellner
Hans Zoellner
We recently described cell-projection pumping as a mechanism transferring cytoplasm between cells. The uptake of fibroblast cytoplasm by co-cultured SAOS-2 osteosarcoma cells changes SAOS-2 morphology and increases cell migration and proliferation, as seen by single-cell tracking and in FACS separated SAOS-2 from co-cultures. Morphological changes in SAOS-2 seen by single cell tracking are consistent with previous observations in fixed monolayers of SAOS-2 co-cultures. Notably, earlier studies with fixed co-cultures were limited by the absence of a quantitative method for identifying sub-populations of co-cultured cells, or for quantitating transfer relative to control populations of SAOS-2 or fibroblasts cultured alone. We now overcome that limitation by a novel Cartesian plot analysis that identifies individual co-cultured cells as belonging to one of five distinct cell populations, and also gives numerical measure of similarity to control cell populations. We verified the utility of the method by first confirming the previously established relationship between SAOS-2 morphology and uptake of fibroblast contents, and also demonstrated similar effects in other cancer cell lines including from melanomas, and cancers of the ovary and colon. The method was extended to examine global DNA methylation, and while there was no clear effect on SAOS-2 DNA methylation, co-cultured fibroblasts had greatly reduced DNA methylation, similar to cancer associated fibroblasts.