Direct targets of Notch signalling activity

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For cells in the body to know what tissue they are part of, whether to grow, they need to communicate. The Notch receptor is central to one communication pathway and is essential for our bodies to be made with the right number and types of cell. It is also important throughout our lives because overactive Notch receptors are the cause of some cancers and defective Notch causes other diseases including types of dementia. In each cell-type in the body, only a small fraction of our genes are turned on. When Notch is active it results in additional genes being turned on. We are aiming to find out the identity of these additional genes and to investigate whether this can help us understand why Notch causes cells to change their behaviour and become cancerous. Our model is the fruit-fly Drosophila melanogaster, where Notch was first identified. Recent sequence of human and Drosophila genomes shows that over 2000 human disease genes are conserved in flies. As Drosophila has fewer genes, fewer cells and is easy to work with, it provides a good starting-point to identify genes that are important in cancers and that could be important therapeutic targets.