Anton Berns | |
|---|---|
 Anton Berns in December 2015 | |
| Born | 1945 |
| Alma mater | |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | |
Antonius Jozef Maria "Anton" Berns (born January 1945, Schijndel) [1] is a Dutch scientist researching molecular genetics and author of the Mouse Cancer Models studies series.
Anton Berns studied biochemistry at the University of Nijmegen and received his master's degree in 1969 (cum laude) and his PhD in 1972 (supervisor Prof. H. Bloemendal) from that same university (cum laude). He did his postdoctoral training in the group of Rudolf Jaenisch at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA., where he studied the role of retroviruses in causing lymphomas in mice. In 1976 he returned to the University of Nijmegen where he became junior staff member. His group explored proviral insertional mutagenesis as a means to identify new oncogenes. In 1985 he was appointed as staff scientist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and in 1986 he became head of the Division of Molecular Genetics of the institute. Here his group did pioneering work to generate and utilize genetically modified mice as a tool to search for new cancer genes.
Berns was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization in 1989. He served on its council from 2005 to 2007 and again from 2008 to 2010. He was its Secretary General from 2010 to 2012. [2]
Berns was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1997. [3] He was elected a member of Academia Europaea in 1999. [4]
In 1999, he was appointed as Director of Research and chairman of the Board of Directors of the Netherlands Cancer Institute/Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital from which he retired at the end of 2011.
He continued his research as a group leader in the Division of Molecular Genetics of the NKI. [5]
On 3 June 2013, Anton Berns was approved by the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology Board of Trustees as the director for the Centers for Research, Education and Innovation (CREI) that are established to promote partnerships between Russian and non-Russian researchers. [6]
In 2016 he was elected as a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences. [7]
He is a member of the editorial board for Genes & Development . [8]
The aim is to utilize genetically engineered mouse models to define the genetic and epigenetic lesions involved in tumor initiation, progression, metastasis and tumor maintenance. These models are particularly suited to design and evaluate new intervention strategies. [5]
Anton Berns' research group has a significant investment in developing new mouse models for a variety of tumors, using Cre/Lox mediated switching of tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes. Both transgenesis and somatic gene transfer are employed to express Cre recombinase and other genes or shRNAs in a regulatable fashion. They have managed to switch multiple oncogenes and/or tumor suppressor genes within cells in vivo at a defined time and to monitor the relevance of these genes for tumor initiation and progression. The induction of highly specific tumors within a narrow time window permits us to correlate specific genetic lesions with distinct tumor characteristics. The general picture that transpires from these studies is that the mouse cancer models show closer resemblance to the human condition when they share the same mutations.
By applying sensitive in vivo imaging techniques to follow tumor growth and metastatic spread in real time in animals the researchers not only can follow tumor development longitudinally but also monitor response to genetic and pharmacological interventions. [5]
Currently, his group focuses on the development and use of advanced mouse models for cancer. Themes of his current research are:
His group consists of approximately 12 members including 4 technicians. [5]
A tumor suppressor gene (TSG), or anti-oncogene, is a gene that regulates a cell during cell division and replication. If the cell grows uncontrollably, it will result in cancer. When a tumor suppressor gene is mutated, it results in a loss or reduction in its function. In combination with other genetic mutations, this could allow the cell to grow abnormally. The loss of function for these genes may be even more significant in the development of human cancers, compared to the activation of oncogenes.
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research is a non-profit research institute located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States that is dedicated to improving human health through basic biomedical research. It was founded as a fiscally independent entity from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where its 18 members all hold faculty appointments in the MIT Department of Biology or the MIT Department of Bioengineering. Two members are National Medal of Science recipients; ten have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences; and four have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine; six are Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators.
Cancer research is research into cancer to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure.
Genetics, a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms.
Alfred George Knudson, Jr. was an American physician and geneticist specializing in cancer genetics. Among his many contributions to the field was the formulation of the Knudson hypothesis in 1971, which explains the effects of mutation on carcinogenesis.
Carcinogenesis, also called oncogenesis or tumorigenesis, is the formation of a cancer, whereby normal cells are transformed into cancer cells. The process is characterized by changes at the cellular, genetic, and epigenetic levels and abnormal cell division. Cell division is a physiological process that occurs in almost all tissues and under a variety of circumstances. Normally, the balance between proliferation and programmed cell death, in the form of apoptosis, is maintained to ensure the integrity of tissues and organs. According to the prevailing accepted theory of carcinogenesis, the somatic mutation theory, mutations in DNA and epimutations that lead to cancer disrupt these orderly processes by interfering with the programming regulating the processes, upsetting the normal balance between proliferation and cell death. This results in uncontrolled cell division and the evolution of those cells by natural selection in the body. Only certain mutations lead to cancer whereas the majority of mutations do not.
Fox Chase Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center research facility and hospital located in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The main facilities of the center are located on property adjoining Burholme Park. The center is part of the Temple University Health System (TUHS) and specializes in the treatment and prevention of cancer.
Philip Leder was an American geneticist.
Ruth Sager was an American geneticist. Sager enjoyed two scientific careers. Her first was in the 1950s and 1960s when she pioneered the field of cytoplasmic genetics by discovering transmission of genetic traits through chloroplast DNA, the first known example of genetics not involving the cell nucleus. The academic community did not acknowledge the significance of her contribution until after the second wave of feminism in the 1970s. Her second career began in the early 1970s and was in cancer genetics; she proposed and investigated the roles of tumor suppressor genes.
Axel Ullrich is a German cancer researcher and has been the director of the molecular biology department at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany since 1988. This department's research has primarily focused on signal transduction. Ullrich has received Hamdan Award for Medical Research Excellence, awarded by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences, Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 2008 and Ullrich and his team received the Wolf Prize in 2010.
The tumor suppressor Folliculin also known as FLCN or Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome protein or FLCN_HUMAN, functions as an inhibitor of Lactate Dehydrogenase-A and a regulator of the Warburg effect. Folliculin (FLCN) is also associated with Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome, which is an autosomal dominant inherited cancer syndrome in which affected individuals are at risk for the development of benign cutaneous tumors (folliculomas), pulmonary cysts, and kidney tumors.
Tyler Jacks is a Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a long-time HHMI investigator, and Founding Director of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, which brings together biologists and engineers to improve detection, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. He is the President of Break Through Cancer, a foundation dedicated to supporting multi-institutional teams of researchers focused on finding solutions to some of the most difficult to treat cancers.
In genetics, floxing refers to the sandwiching of a DNA sequence between two lox P sites. The terms are constructed upon the phrase "flanking/flanked by LoxP". Recombination between LoxP sites is catalysed by Cre recombinase. Floxing a gene allows it to be deleted, translocated or inverted in a process called Cre-Lox recombination. The floxing of genes is essential in the development of scientific model systems as it allows researchers to have spatial and temporal alteration of gene expression. Moreover, animals such as mice can be used as models to study human disease. Therefore, Cre-lox system can be used in mice to manipulate gene expression in order to study human diseases and drug development. For example, using the Cre-lox system, researchers can study oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes and their role in development and progression of cancer in mice models.
In molecular biology, mutagenesis is an important laboratory technique whereby DNA mutations are deliberately engineered to produce libraries of mutant genes, proteins, strains of bacteria, or other genetically modified organisms. The various constituents of a gene, as well as its regulatory elements and its gene products, may be mutated so that the functioning of a genetic locus, process, or product can be examined in detail. The mutation may produce mutant proteins with interesting properties or enhanced or novel functions that may be of commercial use. Mutant strains may also be produced that have practical application or allow the molecular basis of a particular cell function to be investigated.
Breast cancer metastatic mouse models are experimental approaches in which mice are genetically manipulated to develop a mammary tumor leading to distant focal lesions of mammary epithelium created by metastasis. Mammary cancers in mice can be caused by genetic mutations that have been identified in human cancer. This means models can be generated based upon molecular lesions consistent with the human disease.
Luis F. Parada is a Colombian developmental biologist and neuroscientist who currently serves as Director of the Brain Tumor Center, Albert C. Foster Chair and American Cancer Society Research Professor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, New York.
Scott William Lowe is Chair of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program in the Sloan Kettering Institute at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is recognized for his research on the tumor suppressor gene, p53, which is mutated in nearly half of cancers.
Erwin Friedrich Wagner is an Austrian biochemist known for his research on the molecular basis of cancer and associated conditions such as inflammation and cachexia. He was Deputy Director of the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) in Madrid, Spain until 2019. Since 2019, Wagner is a group leader affiliated with the Medical University of Vienna.
Guillermina 'Gigi' Lozano is an American geneticist. She is a professor at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Lozano is recognised for her studies of the p53 tumour suppressor pathway, characterising the protein as a regulator of gene expression.
Fritz Anders was a German geneticist and molecular biologist. He was a professor at the University of Giessen.
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
