Project description:The study is intended to collect specimens to support the application of genome analysis technologies, including large-scale genome sequencing. This study will ultimately provide cancer researchers with specimens that they can use to develop comprehensive catalogs of genomic information on at least 50 types of human cancer. The study will create a resource available to the worldwide research community that could be used to identify and accelerate the development of new diagnostic and prognostic markers, new targets for pharmaceutical interventions, and new cancer prevention and treatment strategies. This study will be a competitive enrollment study conducted at multiple institutions.
Project description:We propose to definitively characterise the somatic genetics of triple negative breast cancer through generation of comprehensive catalogues of somatic mutations in breast cancer cases by high coverage genome sequencing coupled with integrated transcriptomic and methylation analyses.
Project description:We propose to definitively characterise the somatic genetics of ER+ve, HER2-ve breast cancer through generation of comprehensive catalogues of somatic mutations in breast cancer cases by high coverage genome sequencing coupled with integrated transcriptomic and methylation analyses.
Project description:Tumor and non-tumor tissues from 19 cases of colorectal cancer were examined using DIA-based mass spectrometry. A total of 11,833 proteins were identified, including 531 of the 748 cancer-associated proteins defined in the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer. In the comparative analysis between the tumor and non-tumor tissue groups, we observed a significant number of differentially expressed proteins, some of which consistently increased or decreased with disease progression.
Project description:Mutation of the gene PARK2 is the most common cause of early-onset Parkinson's Disease (PD)1,2. PARK2 encodes a gene product with E3 ubiquitin ligase activity3. In a search for multisite tumor suppressors, we identified PARK2 as a frequently targeted gene on chromosome 6q25.2-q27 in cancer. Here, we describe inactivating somatic mutations and frequent intragenic deletions of PARK2 in human malignancies. The PARK2 mutations in cancer occur in the same domains, and sometimes, at the same residues as the germline mutations causing familial PD. Cancer-specific mutations abrogate the growth suppressive effects of PARK2. PARK2 mutations in cancer decrease the gene product's E3 ligase activity, compromising its ability to ubiquitinate cyclin E and resulting in mitotic instability. These data strongly point to PARK2 as a tumor suppressor on 6q25.2-q27. PARK2, a gene that causes neuronal dysfunction when mutated in the germline, may instead contribute to oncogenesis when altered in non-neuronal somatic cells.
Project description:Mutation of the gene PARK2 is the most common cause of early-onset Parkinson's Disease (PD)1,2. PARK2 encodes a gene product with E3 ubiquitin ligase activity3. In a search for multisite tumor suppressors, we identified PARK2 as a frequently targeted gene on chromosome 6q25.2-q27 in cancer. Here, we describe inactivating somatic mutations and frequent intragenic deletions of PARK2 in human malignancies. The PARK2 mutations in cancer occur in the same domains, and sometimes, at the same residues as the germline mutations causing familial PD. Cancer-specific mutations abrogate the growth suppressive effects of PARK2. PARK2 mutations in cancer decrease the gene product's E3 ligase activity, compromising its ability to ubiquitinate cyclin E and resulting in mitotic instability. These data strongly point to PARK2 as a tumor suppressor on 6q25.2-q27. PARK2, a gene that causes neuronal dysfunction when mutated in the germline, may instead contribute to oncogenesis when altered in non-neuronal somatic cells. Human colorectal samples were profiled on Agilent 244K aCGH arrays per manufacturer's instructions. Pooled reference normal DNA was used as the reference.
Project description:The Hippo pathway is a commonly altered signaling pathway involved in cancer initiation and progression; however, exactly how this pathway becomes dysregulated to promote human cancer development has not been fully understood. In this study, we systematically analyzed the Hippo somatic mutations derived from human cancer genome and functionally annotated their roles in targeting the Hippo pathway. We identified a total of 85 driver missense mutations for the major Hippo pathway genes and elucidated the mechanisms by which these mutations altered their functions in the Hippo pathway. Through these analyses, we revealed zinc-finger domain (ZNF) as an integral structure required for MOB1 function, whose driver mutations promoted head and neck cancer development. Moreover, we discovered that the schwannoma/meningioma-derived NF2 driver mutations gained an oncogenic role by activating the VANGL-JNK pathway. Taken together, our study offers a rich somatic mutation resource for further investigating the Hippo pathway in human cancer, providing a molecular basis for the development of Hippo-related personalized cancer therapy.
Project description:Structural rearrangements form a major class of somatic variation in cancer genomes. Local chromosome shattering, termed chromothripsis, is a mechanism proposed to be the cause of clustered chromosomal rearrangements and was recently described to occur in a small percentage of tumors. The significance of these clusters for tumor development or metastatic spread is largely unclear. We used genome-wide long mate-pair sequencing and SNP array profiling to reveal that chromothripsis is a widespread phenomenon in primary colorectal cancer and metastases. We find large and small chromothripsis events in nearly every colorectal tumor sample and show that several breakpoints of chromothripsis clusters and isolated rearrangements affect cancer genes, including NOTCH2, EXO1 and MLL3. We complemented the structural variation studies by sequencing the coding regions of a cancer exome in all colorectal tumor samples and found somatic mutations in 24 genes, including APC, KRAS, SMAD4 and PIK3CA. A pairwise comparison of somatic variations in primary and metastatic samples indicated that in many chromothripsis clusters, isolated rearrangements and point mutations are exclusively present in either the primary tumor or the metastasis and may affect cancer genes in a lesion-specific manner. We conclude that chromothripsis is a prevalent mechanism driving structural rearrangements in colorectal cancer and show that a complex interplay between point mutations, simple copy number changes and chromothripsis events drive colorectal tumor development and metastasis.