Regulation of tumor suppressors in Drosophila

Description of projects available to graduate students:
Using Drosophila as a model system, we recently made a novel and unexpected discovery that certain tumor suppressor and cell polarity proteins are acutely and reversibly controlled by hypoxia. This discovery provides a novel link between hypoxia and misregulation of tumor cell polarity and proliferation. We have just began to elucidate the molecular and cellular mechanisms behind such regulation and there are many exciting opportunities to explored.

Techniques graduate student will learn:
We are using cutting edge genetic tools that were recently developed and published from our lab (Huang et al, PNAS 2009). In addition, we rely heavily on live confocal imaging, immunostaining, molecular biology, RNAi and biochemistry.