The role of Snail family proteins in stem cells and tumour growth

该项目研究了一个基因家族在正常组织和癌症中调节干细胞的作用。这个家族可以关闭其他基因，我们假设保持这些基因关闭是允许干细胞在组织中维持所必需的。我们结合联合收割机在果蝇和小鼠中的新研究来检查干细胞和肿瘤起始中的基因功能。这些研究将增加我们对如何操纵干细胞的知识，并可能确定肿瘤治疗的新靶点。

This project investigates the role of a family of genes in regulating stem cells in normal tissues and cancer. This family can switch other genes off and we hypothesize that keeping these genes off is required to allow stem cells to be maintained in tissues. We combine novel studies in fruit flies and mice to examine gene function in stem cells and tumour initiation. These studies will increase our knowledge of how to manipulate stem cells and may identify new targets for tumour therapy.