Characterisation of the signalling pathways involved in cell invasion downstream of extra centrosomes

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Despite the progress, cancer is still a serious challenge in medicine. Identifying the differences between tumour and normal cells is imperative to understand the disease and to develop novel selective therapeutic strategies. The presence of extra copies of a cellular organelle called centrosome is a unique feature of tumours. Indeed, the presence of extra centrosomes in tumour cells has been recognized since the late 1800s and was then proposed to be cause of malignancy. Yet, to date how centrosome amplification contributes to tumour progression is still unclear. Our recent work demonstrates that the presence of extra centrosomes can induce cell invasion in cells similarly to overexpression of known oncogenes. This finding highlights the importance that these organelles play in tumour progression. In addition, since cell invasion is one of the first steps required for metastatic dissemination of tumour cells, responsible for 90% of human cancer deaths, understanding this process is crucial. In this research proposal we aim to determine how centrosome amplification induces cell invasion. We will use a combination of approaches to identify the signalling alterations that occur as a result of centrosome amplification. Next, we will investigate the signalling alterations that are important for invasion using sophisticated 3-D cell culture models that closely mimic the real tissues. Our results will be also validated in human breast cancer samples from patients. This is essential to establish the relevance of our findings to cancer. Importantly, this strategy has the potential for the development of novel biomarkers to identify tumours containing extra centrosomes in the clinic. This is important because we previously showed that cells with extra centrosomes have unique survival requirements and can be selectively killed. Based on our previous observations, new drugs that kill cells with extra centrosomes have been recently developed. Thus, our work will not only contribute to understand the role of centrosomes amplification in tumour progression and invasion but could also have a major impact in the clinic.