Zhuo (Rory) Li, a graduate student in the Kang lab, was awarded the HHMI International Student Research Fellowship. The goal of this fellowship is to support the research training of outstanding international pre-doctoral students. Epithelial tumor cells acquire increased migratory and invasive capacity through a genetic program called epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Rory aims to identify and characterize novel E3 ubiquitin ligases of ELF5, one of the most important EMT- and metastasis- suppressive transcription factors in breast cancer. Improved understanding of the post-translational regulation of ELF5 will provide critical information on how to block EMT and related processes in cancer progression. Restoring ELF5 level by inhibiting ELF5 degradation suggests an innovative therapeutic strategy to prevent breast cancer.