The uncontrolled proliferation of cells that occurs in cancer represents a malfunctioning of normal growth control pathways. Growth control is lost when cell proliferation occurs at a greater rate than cell death. The pathway we are examining in this proposal can prevent cell death, that would under normal circumstances prevent the tumor from arising. Some tumors have been shown to contain elevated levels of certain components of this pathway. We plan on investigating how prevalent alterations in this pathway occur in a number of different tumor cell lines, and to determine whether manipulation of this pathway can be achieved to give potential therapeutic benefit.
Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality in women globally.
In part, this is due to lack of an affordable and widely available screening test, such as the Pap test. I hope to apply the information derived from my research to improve the diagnostic tools and therapies available for women globally. Many lines of evidence suggest that gliomas are molecularly heterogeneous even within relatively homogeneously histologic subgroups such as glioblastoma. I propose experiments to identify among brain tumors biologically homogenous subgroups of tumors and patients. This molecular classification will be relevant to understanding brain tumors in several ways.