Direct targets of Notch signalling activity

为了让体内的细胞知道它们属于什么组织，是否生长，它们需要交流。Notch受体是一条通讯途径的核心，对我们的身体产生正确数量和类型的细胞至关重要。它在我们的一生中也很重要，因为过度活跃的Notch受体是导致某些癌症的原因，而Notch缺陷会导致包括痴呆症在内的其他疾病。在身体的每一种细胞类型中，只有一小部分基因被激活。当Notch激活时，它会导致额外的基因被激活。我们的目标是找出这些额外基因的身份，并调查这是否能帮助我们理解为什么Notch会导致细胞改变其行为并发生癌变。我们的模型是黑腹果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）， Notch最早就是在那里被发现的。最近的人类和果蝇基因组序列显示，超过2000种人类疾病基因在果蝇中保守。由于果蝇的基因和细胞更少，而且易于研究，因此它为识别在癌症中起重要作用的基因和可能成为重要治疗靶点的基因提供了一个很好的起点。

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.