CANCEROMICS

Modelling cancer in Caenorhabditis elegans

 Partecipanti

Mappa

 Word cloud

Esplora la "nuvola delle parole (Word Cloud) per avere un'idea di massima del progetto.

 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Cancer is a complex disease that results from accumulation of diverse alterations in the genome. There are more than 300 genes identified as “cancer genes” although it is estimated that there are many more involved in cancer development that could be significant during tumorigenesis and putative targets for drugs therapies. Several scientific groups are performing a comprehensive sequencing of genes in cancer cells but these studies lack of functional validation. Since cancer requires the combination of several defects in the genome, an organism amenable for genetics and functional genomics studies as Caenorhabditis elegans would provide the ideal platform to identified those fatidic combinations. I plan to take advantage of C. elegans mutants and a “RNA interference” (RNAi) library to uncover functions and pathways of the following C. elegans genes: A) SWI/SNF complex subunit ZK1128.5 baf-60: The SWI/SNF complex is conserved from yeast to humans and acts in chromatin remodelling to regulate gene expression. baf-60 mutants present extra proliferation at particular lineages. B) Claspin, F25H5.5: Human Claspin acts as a DNA damage checkpoint through the activation of chk1 protein kinase. chk-1 also acts as a DNA damage checkpoint in C. elegans. I have preliminary results in C. elegans pointing to a novel role of Claspin in genome stability. C) Spliceosome (or splicing-related) components rsr-2 and lsm-2: I have recently published that rsr-2 and lsm-2 act in the RAS pathway that determine the vulval cell fate in C. elegans (Ceron et al, 2007). This observation and others suggests functional relationships between spliceosome-related genes and cancer. The discovery of functional networks for these genes will contribute to create a “Functional map for cancer genes” that will be a essential toward understanding this complex disease and, ultimately, find effective therapies.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

The simple roundworm may be the answer to mapping cancer genes and tailoring effective treatments for humans.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Arguably one of the most elusive diseases in medical history is cancer. It is a baffling disease that results from diverse changes in the genome - the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. So far, some 300 genes have been identified as cancer-causing ones, with many more crucial genes needing to be identified in order to develop effective drug treatments.

While many research teams around the world are mapping cancer genes, many of these studies have not been validated. The mapping or 'sequencing' can be done on other organisms and the results can be used to understand cancer in humans. One of these organisms is Caenorhabditis elegans, a microscopic roundworm which lives in the soil. Because of its simple cell structure, quick reproductive abilities and transparent nature, C. elegans is perfect for studying cancer. It is ideally suited for identifying the combination of defects in the genome.

With this in mind, the 'Modelling cancer in Caenorhabditis elegans' (Canceromics) project has set out to pinpoint the intricacies of cancer genes in C. elegans and report on them. This four-year initiative has been fully funded by the EU, and ends in October 2011.

The project's team has participated in several conferences on the subject and unveiled its findings so far, although many more results are expected to emerge at later stages. Eventually, the project hopes to produce a functional map for cancer genes that will shed light on how cancer develops and what treatments could be effective against it.