Telomere Length and Tumour Progression Transgenic and ES Gene Facilities 1.
Telomeres protect chromosomes from fusion and degradation.
The loss of telomere repeats may limit the proliferation of somatic cells and predispose chromosomes with short telomeres for genetic instability in premalignant cells. Dr. Lansdorp's lab has developed novel tools to measure telomere length in individual cells and chromosomes. Such techniques are applied to address questions regarding the role of telomeres in aging and tumor progression, as well as in specific hematological and genetic disorders. Transgenic and ES Gene Facilities r. The facility is crucial for functional genomics aspects of genes related to cancer biology and has already demonstrated significant productivity.