Genetics Program

The overall goal of the Genetics Program is to investigate the underlying molecular genetic causes of cancer and to use this information to improve diagnosis, assist prognosis and identify specific targets for therapeutic intervention. Genetic defects in cancer cells, however, comprise a broad spectrum of changes, which can often be specific to an individual cell type. These are organized into three central themes all of which use state-of-the-art, high throughput genome-wide approaches  to  understand the molecular basis of cancer. 

The Cancer Genes and Genomics theme focuses on the identification and characterization of genes involved in the predisposition to cancer and the progression of tumors. An integrated group of cytogeneticists, molecular geneticists and cell biologists work together to characterize the function of genes which have been implicated in cancer through candidate gene approaches and positional cloning strategies. These single gene studies are complemented by high throughput analyses of tumors using expression microarrays, and array based comparative genome hybridization to provide a more global view of the genetic changes that have occurred in tumor cell development.  More

Program Members