Cell Growth Regulation and Cancer Biology Research
About Our Program
The Program in Cell Growth Regulation and Cancer Biology is interested in how pathways involved in cell migration, cell cycle control, telomerase regulation and survival are involved in cancer, aging, neurodegenerative diseases, and cardiovascular diseases.
Dr. Thomas is interested in cancer cell biology focusing on elucidating signaling pathways, which control processes such as cell migration and survival, and how these signals are deregulated in different diseases. The laboratory has a long-standing interest in cytoskeletal scaffolding proteins and has used in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro approaches to elucidate their functions in migration of normal and cancerous cells. More recently, they have found links between some of these proteins and proteins involved in a cellular homeostasis process called autophagy, which is a process that has been linked to cancer, aging, neurodegenerative diseases, and cardiovascular diseases. The laboratory is interested in understanding how this process is regulated and its role in various diseases.
Dr. Ralph Scully's laboratory has as a major focus understanding how several tumor suppressor genes (BRCA1, BRCA2, the Bloom's Syndrome gene (BLM), Fanconi Anemia genes (FA) and histone H2AX) control sister chromatid recombination and how to relate this to their tumor suppressor functions. These studies may someday be applied for prevention and therapy of human cancers.