Tag Archives: deaconess

Silencing the speech gene FOXP2 causes breast cancer cells to metastasize

Now a research team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has identified an unexpected link between a transcription factor known to regulate speech and language development and metastatic colonization of breast cancer. Currently described online in Cell Stem Cell, the new findings demonstrate that, when silenced, the FOXP2 transcription factor, otherwise known as the speech gene, endows breast cancer cells with a number of malignant traits and properties that enable them to survive — and thrive. “We have identified a previously undescribed function for the transcription factor FOXP2 in breast cancer,” explains senior author Antoine Karnoub, PhD, an investigator in the Department of Pathology at BIDMC and Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. “We have found that depressed FOXP2 [a member of the forkhead family of transcriptional regulators] and elevated levels of its upstream inhibitor microRNA 199a are prominent features of clinically advanced breast cancers that associate with poor patient survival.” Karnoub’s lab investigates the roles that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) play in the development and metastasis of breast cancer…

Silencing the speech gene FOXP2 causes breast cancer cells to metastasize — ScienceDaily

Now a research team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has identified an unexpected link between a transcription factor known to regulate speech and language development and metastatic colonization of breast cancer. Currently described online in Cell Stem Cell, the new findings demonstrate that, when silenced, the FOXP2 transcription factor, otherwise known as the speech gene, endows breast cancer cells with a number of malignant traits and properties that enable them to survive — and thrive. “We have identified a previously undescribed function for the transcription factor FOXP2 in breast cancer,” explains senior author Antoine Karnoub, PhD, an investigator in the Department of Pathology at BIDMC and Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School…

Hope builds for drug that might shut down variety of cancers

In the Nov. 7 issue of Cell, investigators pinpoint two cellular enzymes — Type 2 phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphate 4-kinases and β (Type 2 PIP kinases) — as essential for cancer growth when cells have lost p53, the powerful tumor-suppressor gene long dubbed the "guardian of the genome." More than half of all cancers lose this gene, allowing these cancers to grow at will. The researchers discovered that the Type 2 PIP kinases are not critical for the growth of normal cells but become essential for cell growth when p53 is lost due to mutations or deletions. The scientists showed, in animal and lab studies of human cancer cells, that targeting these molecules effectively shuts down the growth of p53 mutant cancers…

New insights into the ribosome; important implications for disease

But in recent years, it has been demonstrated that the ribosome is far more than just a processing unit; indeed, current research points to an important role for this complex structure in actively regulating biological processes. Now, in a first-of-its-kind study that broadly examines the composition of the riboproteome, a scientific team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) reveals previously unappreciated components of the ribosome, uncovering a large and dynamic structure that, among other things, can be altered in cancer. Published in today’s on-line issue of the journal Cell Reports, the study additionally describes the development of an analytic platform that can be widely applied to numerous biological systems to highlight the functional roles of possible disease genes associated with the riboproteome. "A primary goal of our lab is to gain a better understanding of translation and its impact on cancer," explains senior author Pier Paolo Pandolfi, MD, PhD, Scientific Director of the Cancer Center at BIDMC and George C…

Promising new direction for organ regeneration and tissue repair

Now a research team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center has identified an entirely new approach to enhance normal tissue growth, a finding that could have widespread therapeutic applications. Their findings were published on-line this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Tissue regeneration is a process that is not fully understood, but previous research has demonstrated that endothelial cells lining the insides of small blood vessels play a key role in tissue growth. …

Researchers pinpoint sources of fibrosis-promoting cells that ravage organs

Findings from research conducted at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and continued at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center are reported in an advance online publication at Nature Medicine on June 30. "Answering a fundamental question about the origin of these cells by identifying four separate pathways involved in their formation allows us to look at ways to block those pathways to treat fibrosis," said senior author Raghu Kalluri, Ph.D., M.D., MD Anderson chair and professor of Cancer Biology. "It’s highly unlikely that a single drug will work." "In addition to being lethal in its own right, fibrosis is a precursor for the development of cancer and plays a role in progression, metastasis and treatment resistance," Kalluri said. …