Understanding how genes are regulated in cancer cells
Background
Healthy cells normally undergo regulatory processes that turn DNA into proteins but when this process becomes distorted cancer cells are formed. This distorted process commonly occurs in breast cancer and blood cancers (such as leukaemia). These cancers are also among the top causes of cancer–related deaths in Australia.
The research
Dr Ulf Schmitz and his team have been studying the mechanisms involved in gene regulation and in this project, they will narrow in on a specific process known to play a role in the cancer development. The research team will investigate a regulatory process known as ‘intron retention’, in both breast cancer and leukaemia. The process allows unwanted ‘junk DNA’ to enter the cell and interfere with other regulatory processes. Intron retention has been found to play a critical role in cancer development, but little is known about the underlying mechanism. The team will use computer models and experimental methods to establish how this process works, and then use computer models of breast cancer and leukaemia cells to predict the effects distortions could have on gene regulation in these cells.
The impact
This project will be of enormous and broad significance for the understanding of the role of gene regulation in cancer. The information generated in this project will provide a rich resource to study the effects of abnormal gene regulation. Insights gained in this project will help improve treatments that target gene regulation processes.