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Rebekah Zimmerman, B. S., Biochemistry Like most cancers, transformation by Abelson virus is a multi-step process involving signals from the v-Abl protein that stimulate growth and suppress apoptosis as well as changes in cellular tumor suppressor genes. I am studying the way in which molecules involved in the p53 tumor suppressor pathway influence transformation. Loss of either p53 or the p53 regulatory protein, p19Arf, accelerates transformation in vitro. Loss of p53 also accelerates transformation in vivo. I am examining the mechanism by which loss of these proteins influences tumorigenesis in vivo. Elucidating these mechanisms should further our understanding of malignant progression because the Ink/Arf locus and the gene products it regulates, p53 and pRb are the most frequently mutated tumor suppressors in human cancers. |
