Grant: Operating Grant

The importance of p53 in the prevention of cancer is highlighted by the fact that p53 is inactivated in more than 50 % of all human tumors. Regulation of p53 expression and stability is essential for maintaining normal cell growth. The research team of Dr. Leng is interested in understanding how molecules promote or inhibit the growth of tumors. Dr. Leng is particularly interested three molecules called UBE4B, p53 and MDM2, which appear to regulate the growth of tumors. They propose to study the role of UBE4B in regulating of p53 in tumors. They are using cell culture, mouse model to study the mechanisms of how UBE4B regulates p53, and define the correlation of the UBE4B expression and p53 statues in tumors. Thus, the outcome of this proposal has significant implications regarding an important role for UBE4B negatively regulates p53 and the possible effect in cancer therapy. Successful completion of the proposed experiments could lead to novel anti-cancer therapies that could potentially improve the prognosis for cancer patients and reduce the public health burden from cancer.