DNA recombination errors in cancers of hematopoietic origin

Description of projects available to graduate students:
V(D)J recombination, the process of antigen receptor loci rearrangement in B and T lymphocytes, first initiates before hematopoietic progenitors have committed to the B or T lineage. Some V(D)J recombination+ progenitors subsequently give rise to natural killer (NK) and dendritic cells (DC), a substantial proportion of which harbor DNA rearrangements. This is an important observation because V(D)J recombination-dependent errors are a widely recognized source of chromosomal translocation in B and T cells, and maybe be an unappreciated source of cancer in NK and DC. We are evaluating the biological consequence of V(D)J recombination to normal and cancerous NK cells.

Techniques graduate student will learn:
flow cytometry
single cell PCR, real time PCR
identification of lymphocyte subsets in mouse and man
cell culture
retroviral technology