Izsvák Lab

Chigozie Joseph Samuel, Andrea Schmitt* Amit Pande

Although, numerous studies implicate an association between estrogens and the development of breast cancer, the molecular mechanisms through which estrogens induce or promote breast cancer development are not clear.

The Sleeping Beauty transposon has emerged as a new, powerful tool in cancer research (reviewed in PMID:26051241). The transposon mutagenesis screen is a system-biological approach to decipher the regulatory networks that normally suppress cancer development. Transposon-based insertional mutagenesis screens are able to identify both oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes. In this project, we utilize the hyperactive SB100X system in a rat model of the estrogen-induced mammary cancer (ACI) to decipher gene regulatory networks cooperating in hormone-dependent breast cancer development, progression (collab. M. Bader (MDC), D. Largaespada (U. Minnesota), J. Shull (U. Wisconsin). Unlike the situation in mouse, the development of mammary cancer in rat is similar to human as it is also estrogen-dependent.