Grant: Operating Grant

Progression of cancer involves two important processes. First cancer cells grow at an accelerated rate and second, a proportion of them move in the body to go to different organs in order to form metastasis. In our laboratory, we refer to these events as proliferation and migration, respectively. The proposed research project aim at defining the intracellular events that are turned on in cancer cells to increase their proliferation and give the cells the ability to detach from the primary tumor and move to secondary sites. Our preliminary experiments indicate that a protein inside breast cancer cells, named ARF1, act as a switch to initiate cell proliferation and migration when cells are in the presence of growth factors. If we lower the amount of this protein in cancer cells, we totally prevent proliferation and migration. The proposed experiments will help us understand exactly how this protein works, and delineate which cellular events its activation initiate. A better understanding of the mechanisms that are altered when cell transform during the progression of cancer will allow us to design more effective anti-cancer therapies that have less secondary effects.