Difference between revisions of "Cancer Genetics"

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==The importance of pure research==
 
==The importance of pure research==
  
==Classes here at UH==
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==Classes here at UH Mānoa==
  
 
BIOL/MCB 472 Biology of Cancer, Howard Shen.
 
BIOL/MCB 472 Biology of Cancer, Howard Shen.

Revision as of 08:44, 20 April 2019

I am working on finishing up two manuscripts that touch upon aspects of cancer genetics and recently gave a guest lecture about cancer genetics in an undergraduate biology class. While I am actively thinking about it I want to collect some notes and resources together here.

Notes from a guest lecture on cancer genetics

Most people have direct personal experience with cancer. Either they themselves, a family member, or a close friend has been affected by cancer.

Briefly review mitosis and the cell cycle.

Give an example of the interactions of pRB, E2F, Cyclin D1, and Cdk4.

Introduce Retinoblastoma.

Cdk and cyclin amplification (multiple copies) and hyperactivation (overexpression) to oncogenes.

Introduce p53.

The discovery of cyclins.

Cell cycle control regulatory network and Rube-Goldberg Machines

Self resetting machines.

wee1- rum1- double mutant.

Cancer is a breakdown of cellular cooperation in multicellular organisms.

Cells in multicellular organisms depend extensively on signals from other cells (like growth signals, cell death, etc.).

Example of Notch Delta

Enabling processes in the development of cancer.

Development of a benign tumor.

Transition of a benign tumor into a malignant tumor.

Two general gene categories, oncogenes and tumor suppressors.

What increases the rates of cancer?

Rous sarcoma virus example.

Inherited components versus environmental causes.

Lifetime risk of cancer.

Rates of cancer over the last 100 years.

The lag time between smoking and lung cancer

Cancer incidence and age

Cancer across the tree of life

Peto’s paradox

Several factors have made cancer hard to study in the past. One of these may be that traditional model organisms are, unlike humans, short lived. In many ways cancer is a disease of age and possibly body size. Insights have come from studying a range of non-traditional long-lived species.

Elephants, Naked Mole Rats, Plants

Transmissible cancer

Tasmanian devils, shellfish.

Could free living cancer cells survive and evolve?

Could cancer cells survive in sea water on their own and escape from their host? (Myxosporea?)

Beyond cells, cancer in super-organisms

Broadening our focus: social cancer of super-organisms?

The importance of the immune system in cancer

The importance of pure research

Classes here at UH Mānoa

BIOL/MCB 472 Biology of Cancer, Howard Shen.

References

  • Aktipis, C. A., Boddy, A. M., Jansen, G., Hibner, U., Hochberg, M. E., Maley, C. C., & Wilkinson, G. S. (2015). Cancer across the tree of life: cooperation and cheating in multicellularity. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 370(1673), 20140219.
  • Callaway, E. (2015). How elephants avoid cancer. Nature, 1038, 18534.
  • Choi, C. Q. (2016) In Shellfish, Cancer Can Be Contagious. Live Science https://www.livescience.com/55156-transmissable-cancer-found-in-shellfish.html
  • Davidich, M. I., & Bornholdt, S. (2008). Boolean network model predicts cell cycle sequence of fission yeast. PloS one, 3(2), e1672.
  • Davis, D. (2020 (article accessed in 2019, date is inaccurate)). Why your immune system is key in the fight against cancer. WIRED Health https://www.wired.co.uk/article/immune-system-cancer
  • Dobata, S., Sasaki, T., Mori, H., Hasegawa, E., Shimada, M., & Tsuji, K. (2011). Persistence of the single lineage of transmissible ‘social cancer’in an asexual ant. Molecular ecology, 20(3), 441-455.
  • Doonan, J. H., & Sablowski, R. (2010). Walls around tumours—why plants do not develop cancer. Nature Reviews Cancer, 10(11), 794.
  • Hanahan, D., Weinberg, R. A. (2000). The Hallmarks of Cancer. Cell 100(1): 57–70.
  • Hanahan, D., Weinberg, R. A. (2011). Hallmarks of Cancer: The Next Generation. Cell 144(5): 646–674.
  • Hunt, T. (2015). Pursuing the impossible: an interview with Tim Hunt. BMC biology, 13(1), 64.
  • Panchin, A. Y., Aleoshin, V. V., & Panchin, Y. V. (2019). From tumors to species: a SCANDAL hypothesis. Biology direct, 14(1), 3.
  • Robertson, R. (2015). The discovery of cyclin: the unknown and the unknowable. On Biology https://blogs.biomedcentral.com/on-biology/2015/08/21/discovery-cyclin-unknown-unknowable/
  • Seluanov, A., Gladyshev, V. N., Vijg, J., & Gorbunova, V. (2018). Mechanisms of cancer resistance in long-lived mammals. Nature Reviews Cancer, 1.
  • Sprinzak, D., Lakhanpal, A., LeBon, L., Garcia-Ojalvo, J., & Elowitz, M. B. (2011). Mutual inactivation of Notch receptors and ligands facilitates developmental patterning. PLoS computational biology, 7(6), e1002069.
  • Tyson JJ, Chen K, Novak B. Network dynamics and cell physiology. Natl Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2001;2(12):908–916. doi: 10.1038/35103078.
  • Weiss, R. A., & Vogt, P. K. (2011). 100 years of Rous sarcoma virus. Journal of Experimental Medicine, 208(12), 2351-2355.