Study of the Interaction between the Wg and JNK Pathways in the RAS Scribble Tumors

Study of the Interaction between the Wg and JNK Pathways in the RAS Scribble Tumors

Presenter(s)

Michelle L Borchers

Description

Multiple signaling pathways function simultaneously in multicellular organisms. The Hippo pathway consists of a signaling cascade that maintains organ growth by suppressing the transcriptional co-activator Yorkie. The Wg and JNK pathways help control cell growth and can be manipulated to create tumors in organisms. Normal cells promote growth and repair damage. Unfortunately, 90% of human cancers have accumulation of mutations activating oncogenes and loss of tumor suppressor genes. When these changes occur together, cells cannot repair themselves. I want to understand these pathways more in order to gain insight to which genes are important for the pathway. Multiple nodes make up the Wg and the JNK pathways, so the discovery of their effect on tumor growth will help determine which nodes are essential for the pathways. Four experiments will be set up to test the importance of these nodes in Drosophila. This project aims gain a better understanding of the role of Wg pathway components in the growth and progression of cancer using epithelial tumor models in Drosophila. Given the conservation of genetics and biological processes our studies in flies can be extrapolated to human cancer as well.

Publication Date

4-5-2017

Project Designation

Honors Thesis - Undergraduate

Primary Advisor

Madhuri Kango-Singh

Primary Advisor's Department

Biology

Keywords

Stander Symposium project

Study of the Interaction between the Wg and JNK Pathways in the RAS Scribble Tumors

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