Grant: Operating Grant

A cell receives information from the outside and inside worlds and combines this information to make decisions as to whether anything should be done and if yes, how it should be done. In the inner cell control machinery, there are critical points where these decisions are made. Identifying these critical points and how they integrate information to make decisions is a central goal in medical genetics. Much progress has been done in deciphering these signaling cascades in the past 10 years. However, what is still lacking is how the different processes are integrated, i.e. how they talk to each other. Here I propose a genetic and molecular approach for studying how and what information is passed from one molecular pathway to another. The knowledge gained from this study will illuminate how central processes such as cell growth, proliferation and metabolism are coordinated in normal and cancer cells. In addition, it will open the door to the development of combinatorial therapy, whereby multiple pathways are targeted simultaneously to improve treatment efficiency.