CELL BIOLOGY OF ABI · Roles for Abelson-interactor (Abi) proteins in cell polarity and cancer progression

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Project objective

Primary tumour cells that detach and become migratory are the basis for metastatic cancer. Metastatic cells removed from tumours show dramatic increases in their rates of motility, indicating that changes in cell motility may be a requisite step in the progression of tumours towards malignancy. I have been studying factors that regulate lamellipodial protrusion and cell migration in vitro. I propose to study the regulation of mammalian cell migration and the consequences of misregulating cytoskeletal dynamics on oncogenesis.The central hypothesis is that an emerging family of cytoskeletal-regulatory proteins (Abi/NESH proteins) acts on the cytoskeleton to control cell polarity and cell proliferation. I have initiated a molecular and genetic analysis of A bi/NESH function in cells and in vivo. Abi/NESH activity will be modulated by complementary over-expression and RNAi-mediated loss-of-function studies measuring the cellular effects on cytoskeletal dynamics, anchorage-independent growth, and the incidence of tumour metastasis. This research will be conducted at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (Oeiras, Portugal) where I will establish a state of the art cell biology program dedicated to quantitative live cell dynamics analysis.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

• FUNDAçãO CALOUSTE GULBENKIAN · LISBOACoordinatorPortugal

Links

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