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Chicago Cancer Genome Project studies genetics of 1,000 tumors
Over the past year, working closely with physicians, the CCSB team collected complete sequence data for genes expressed by 100 tumors―primarily breast cancer, head and neck cancer, and leukemia. Correlating genetic data with patient outcomes, they have begun to identify genetic patterns within tumors that may help them predict how a cancer will behave. Many experts believe such information will increasingly guide treatment.
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A new study led by CCSB Director Kevin White could lead researchers to a new set of drug targets for treating breast cancer
The most common forms of breast cancer are fueled by the female hormone estrogen. By comparing the effects of estrogen and retinoic acid on the entire genome, the researchers found that they have a "yin-yang" effect. They alter the expression of many of the same genes, with estrogen tipping the scales towards cell proliferation and retinoic acid restoring the balance by inhibiting cellular growth.
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CCSB investigator Richard Carthew demonstrates that a microRNA called miR-7 is critical to the robustness of the molecular network that helps regulate uniformity
In a study of Drosophila, when the researchers eliminated miR-7, the networks remained intact but only under uniform environmental conditions. When the researchers perturbed the environment by modulating the temperature, the networks failed to keep things intact, and animals suffered from developmental defects. If the microRNA was present, however, the networks resisted the temperature fluctuation, and animals were normal and healthy. Read more »
CCSB investigator John Reinitz demonstrates that developing fruit fly embryos are capable of error corrections
Animals have an astonishing ability to develop reliably, in spite of variable conditions during embryogenesis. New research, published in parallel this week in PLoS Biology and PLoS Computational Biology, addresses how living things can develop into precise, adult forms when there is so much variation present during their development stages. A team led by John Reinitz at Stony Brook University, and funded by the National Institutes of Health, shows how fruit fly embryos can "forget" initial incorrect versions of their body plan and develop into recognizable adult flies. Read more »
A New Study Led by CCSB Director Kevin White Could Speed Detection of Kidney Cancer
Roadkill study could speed detection of kidney cancer
Large-scale data mining of gene networks in fruit flies has led researchers to a sensitive and specific diagnostic biomarker for human renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer. In the journal Science, published early online January 22, a team based at the University of Chicago led by Dr. White shows that the biomarker known as SPOP is produced by 99 percent of clear cell renal cell carcinomas but not by normal kidney tissue. Read more »
CCSB investigators demonstrate that in C. elegans, the heat shock response of somatic cells is not cell-autonomous but rather depends on the thermosensory neuron
Article available for download:
Regulation of the cellular heat shock response in Caenorhabditis elegans by thermosensory neurons
CCSB Director and Principal Investigator Dr. Kevin White make notable “Under 40” lists
Life begins at 40. For a fortunate, capable few, life gets rolling sooner. Two of them, Kevin White and Jonathan Pritchard, both 37 and members of the Department of Human Genetics, have been singled out for getting ahead of the numbers.
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