Project description:A Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon forward genetic screen was performed to identify the genes that promote osteosarcoma (OS) development and metastasis. Mutagenesis induced OS in wild type mice and accelerated it on a Trp53 deficient background. Analysis of tumors demonstrated that Trp53 deficiency is correlated with genomic instability, which was virtually absent in tumors induced by SB mutagenesis alone. Metastases developed in a subset of animals and in nearly all cases were clonal related to primary tumors. Over 200 candidate genes were identified, many of which are altered in human cancers including OS. Signaling pathways enriched for candidate genes were also identified and a subset of these pathways and genes were functionally validated and represent new targets for OS treatment. Bisulphite converted DNA from the 21 diagnosis osteosarcoma patients and 3 hOB cell line replicates were hybridised to the Illumina Infinium 450K Human Methylation Beadchip.
Project description:A Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon forward genetic screen was performed to identify the genes that promote osteosarcoma (OS) development and metastasis. Mutagenesis induced OS in wild type mice and accelerated it on a Trp53 deficient background. Analysis of tumors demonstrated that Trp53 deficiency is correlated with genomic instability, which was virtually absent in tumors induced by SB mutagenesis alone. Metastases developed in a subset of animals and in nearly all cases were clonal related to primary tumors. Over 200 candidate genes were identified, many of which are altered in human cancers including OS. Signaling pathways enriched for candidate genes were also identified and a subset of these pathways and genes were functionally validated and represent new targets for OS treatment.
Project description:Ptch+/- mice, which are predisposed to SHH subgroup medulloblastoma, were mutagenised using the Sleeping Beauty transposon to identify genes which increase the frequency of medulloblastoma formation. Gene expression in tumours was assessed both to investigate their relationship to human subgroup tumours, and to identify genes where expression was altered by mutagenesis. Total RNA isolated from tumours induced by SB mutagenesis were compared to normal cerebellum, tumours induced witout SB mutagenesis, and tumours from a distinct model of disease (GTML).
Project description:Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is a histological subtype of breast cancer with distinct molecular and clinical features from the more common subtype invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). ILC cells exhibit anchorage-independent growth in ultra-low attachment (ULA) suspension cultures, which is largely attributed to the loss of E-cadherin. In addition to anoikis resistance, herein we show that human ILC cell lines exhibit enhanced cell proliferation in ULA cultures as compared to IDC cells. Proteomic comparison of ILC and IDC cell lines identified induction of PI3K/Akt and p90-RSK pathways specifically in ULA culture in ILC cells. Further transcriptional profiling uncovered unique upregulation of the inhibitors of differentiation family transcription factors ID1 and ID3 in ILC ULA culture, the knockdown of which diminished the anchorage-independent growth of ILC cell lines through cell cycle arrest. We find that ID1 and ID3 expression is higher in human ILC tumors as compared to IDC, correlated with worse prognosis uniquely in patients with ILC and associated with upregulation of angiogenesis and matrisome-related genes. Altogether, our comprehensive study of anchorage independence in human ILC cell lines provides mechanistic insights and clinical implications for metastatic dissemination of ILC and implicates ID1 and ID3 as novel drivers and therapeutic targets for lobular breast cancer.
Project description:Ptch+/- mice, which are predisposed to SHH subgroup medulloblastoma, were mutagenised using the Sleeping Beauty transposon to identify genes which increase the frequency of medulloblastoma formation. Gene expression in tumours was assessed both to investigate their relationship to human subgroup tumours, and to identify genes where expression was altered by mutagenesis.
Project description:To identify novel host factors as putative targets to reverse HIV-1 latency, we performed an insertional mutagenesis genetic screen in a latently HIV-1-infected pseudohaploid KBM7 cell line (Hap-Lat). Following mutagenesis, insertions were mapped to the genome, and bioinformatic analysis resulted in the identification of 69 candidate host genes involved in maintaining HIV-1 latency.
