Testing German A. Pihan. Our laboratory is actively engaged in the development of rapid, highly sensitive and specific, cost effective molecular assays for the diagnosis, prognosis and follow up of liquid and solid tumors. We have developed a rapid multiplex amplification and detection assay for the four risk-stratifying chromosome translocations in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Similar assays are now in development for acute leukemia in adults and for papillomavirus typing.
We have established that centrosomes are abnormal in a great majority ofcarcinomas and that they appear to be largely responsible for chromosome instability, aneuploidy and the cytologic dysarray characteristics of high grade carcinomas. In collaboration with the Department of Molecular Medicine we have shown that overexpression of pericentrin, a centrosome protein, causes cellular changes similar to those seen in high grade tumors. In our laboratory we have made normal and cancer cell lines carrying GFP-fusion proteins to study mitotic events in cancer. The quicktime movie below, made in collaboration with Stephen Doxsey's Laboratory, shows a cancer cell line carrying a Histone H2B-GFP fusion going through the late stages of mitosis. Fluorescent chromosome movements are seen in exquisite detail.