Dr. Hava Avraham's main area of laboratory effort concerns signaling pathways in breast cancer. She has discovered a new gene, CSK homologous kinase (CHK), that is a novel negative growth regulator of human breast cancer. She also recently began to study BRCA-1, the gene important in inherited breast cancer among Ashkenazi Jews, and found that Hergulin regulates BRCA-1 in breast cancer cells. Dr. Avraham also has discovered a cytoskeletal gene product, Mayven, that appears important in cell spreading. Finally, she is investigating the role of novel tyrosine phosphatases in breast cancer.