The Andersen Laboratory, December 2002. Behind Bogi, from left, Kay Starr, Duy, Ning, Josh, Lu, Steve, and Manuel.

Unraveling Gene-Regulatory Pathways Governing Mammalian Development and Cancer

During organ development, pluripotent precursor cells proliferate and expand to undergo progressive series of differentiation steps, finally generating fully differentiated cell types capable off carrying out the functions characteristic for a given organ. In this process, there is a link between cellular proliferation and differentiation, because concomitant with the acquisition of differentiation, cells usually lose the ability to proliferate. These cellular processes, which are controlled by signals that ultimately affect the regulation of gene expression, can be subverted, causing diseases, including cancer. In fact, cancer cells share many characteristics with undifferentiated cells of a developing organ, including persistent proliferation and suppression of the differentiation program, suggesting that developmental regulatory pathways may be important targets of mutations in cancer. [more]