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I am a cancer researcher whose specialty involves cytogenetics, the analysis of chromosomes at the cellular level. My main area of interest consists of deciphering the chromosomal aberrations that define cancer cells, and to utilize different methods to elucidate the mechanisms that contribute to tumorigenesis. Cells undergoing tumor progression pass through a series of numerical and structural chromosomal changes, leading to an imbalance of entire chromosomes or chromosome segments. By combining conventional G-banding methodologies with molecular cytogenetic techniques such as FISH (fluorescence-in-situ-hybridizations), and spectral karyotyping (SKY), I have analyzed multiple patient samples derived from numerous tumor tissues (bladder, prostate, multiple myelomas, etc.), as well as various leukemia's and lymphomas, revealing previously hidden chromosome aberrations, primarily in the form as unbalanced translocations.
Utilizing SKY and FISH analysis, I have characterized a type of chromosomal aberration, not previously described in solid tumors, referred to as "jumping translocations", in ten established solid tumor cell lines derived from bladder (BK-10, J82, HT 1197, UM-UC-3, 5637), prostate (DU-145, PC-3), cervix (HeLa), pancreas (Capan-1), and breast tissue (SK-BR-3). These translocations have been previously described as rare, observed primarily in leukemia's and lymphomas, and osteosarcoma and melanoma patients. Jumping translocations result from the fusion of a donor chromosome arm or segment onto different recipient chromosomes. These segments often contribute to chromosome gains of specific chromosomal regions which harbor oncogenes, for example CMYC, BCR, ABL, HER/neu-2, etc, thereby providing cancer cells with a proliferative advantage.
My current project is aimed at elucidating the underlying mechanisms that contribute to aneuploidy prevalent in cancer cells, using animal model systems. I have established over 40 cell lines derived from normal mouse organs: bladder, colon, cervix, lung, kidney, and mammary glands. When normal rodent cells are grown in tissue culture, they undergo a process referred to as cellular transformation or spontaneous immortalization. Utilizing SKY, FISH, CGH, PCR, and microarray analysis, I have followed the genetic changes that occur as the normal cell becomes transformed.