May 01, 2009

Highlighting the Institute's Growth Control Research Program

(NEW YORK, May 1, 2009) - The Cancer Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center is dedicating its Growth Control Research Program to raise awareness for National Cancer Research Month. In 2007, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) secured resolutions from the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives declaring the month of May as National Cancer Research Month.

The Cancer Institute's goal is to help support the efforts of the AACR in promoting National Cancer Research Month as a truly national campaign. The Cancer Institute is demonstrating its support by highlighting the Growth Control Research Program, one of its seven research programs.

Michele Pagano, M.D., the May Ellen and Gerald Ritter Professor of Oncology in the Department of Pathology and deputy director of The Cancer Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center, has led the institute's Growth Control Program since 2000.

Dr. Pagano studies the cell division cycle and how the lack of regulation of this process contributes to cancer development. In particular, his research focuses on "ubiquitin ligases," a family of enzymes that regulate cell proliferation. If cells can't properly regulate their own growth, they begin to multiply without control, contributing to the formation of tumors.

The Growth Control Program is an instrument to bring together various investigators who are interested in the study of the molecular mechanisms of malignant transformation. The program assembles 46 scientists who work on signal transduction pathways that are implicated in initiating and maintaining the growth and proliferation of tumor cells. These pathways include those regulated by oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, as well as those impinging on the cellular transcription apparatus. Included in the program are investigators who use animal models of neoplasia to mimic the steps involved in tumor development in humans, or who use clinical samples to determine the patterns of genetic alterations associated with different tumor types. In addition, the Growth Control Program encompasses members who make use of this knowledge and wide array of expertise to design novel appropriate therapeutic strategies.

Recent Highlights/Milestones for the Growth Control Research Program:

The Iafantis laboratory studies T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), which is characterized by infiltration of the central nervous system. For this reason, children and adolescents affected by this disease are treated with prophylactic cranial irradiation or intrathecal chemotherapy with several adverse side effects. The Iafantis lab discovered the mechanism of this infiltration and suggested a new, putative drug target for T-ALL (Buonamici et al., Nature 2009).

In response to chemotherapy, cells of certain tumors (such as breast and lung cancers, as well as melanomas and leukemia) die because of the up-regulation of a protein called Bim. However, tumors eventually become resistant to chemotherapy by eliminating Bim via its enhanced degradation. The Pagano laboratory has provided the biochemical and molecular details of a novel pathway controlling the degradation of Bim. Inhibition of this pathway represents a rational and valid therapeutic strategy to induce death of tumor cells in cancer patients (Dehan et al., Mol. Cell, 2009).

About The Cancer Institute
The mission of The Cancer Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center is to discover the origins of human cancer and to use that knowledge to eradicate the personal and societal burden of cancer in our community, the nation and the world. The Cancer Institute is an NCI-designated Cancer Center.