Honors Theses

Advisor

Madhuri Kango-Singh

Department

Biology

Publication Date

Spring 4-2016

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Abstract

Cell death is of key importance in maintaining health and normal development. In cancer, cell death is improperly controlled provoking uncontrolled proliferation of cells, which results in severe harm to the body. The Hippo pathway is an identified pathway in Drosophila melanogaster that is involved with regulating the different mechanisms of survival and proliferation within the cells. It is known to interact with a gene known as Dronc that is a key participant in the cell death pathway of apoptosis. Previous work has shown how the loss of certain caspases, which are cysteine proteases, is linked with cell survival. My project will be investigating the mechanism by which it happens, by testing the nature of the cell survival pathway. We hypothesize that the loss of function clones of drice, dronc, or dark promote cell proliferation that support tumor growth. At the conclusion of these studies, we expect to generate insights into how loss of cell death regulating genes impacts tissues, and if it promotes aggressive growth of cancer cells.

Permission Statement

This item is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code) and may only be used for noncommercial, educational, and scholarly purposes.

Keywords

Undergraduate research

Disciplines

Cancer Biology | Cell Biology

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