Susan Lee Lindquist,ForMemRS was an American professor of biology at MIT specializing in molecular biology,particularly the protein folding problem within a family of molecules known as heat-shock proteins,and prions. Lindquist was a member and former director of the Whitehead Institute and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2010.
Bcl-2,encoded in humans by the BCL2 gene,is the founding member of the Bcl-2 family of regulator proteins that regulate cell death (apoptosis),by either inhibiting (anti-apoptotic) or inducing (pro-apoptotic) apoptosis. It was the first apoptosis regulator identified in any organism.
Autophagy is the natural,conserved degradation of the cell that removes unnecessary or dysfunctional components through a lysosome-dependent regulated mechanism. It allows the orderly degradation and recycling of cellular components. Although initially characterized as a primordial degradation pathway induced to protect against starvation,it has become increasingly clear that autophagy also plays a major role in the homeostasis of non-starved cells. Defects in autophagy have been linked to various human diseases,including neurodegeneration and cancer,and interest in modulating autophagy as a potential treatment for these diseases has grown rapidly.
Fulvestrant,sold under the brand name Faslodex among others,is a medication used to treat hormone receptor (HR)-positive metastatic breast cancer in postmenopausal women with disease progression as well as HR-positive,HER2-negative advanced breast cancer in combination with abemaciclib or palbociclib in women with disease progression after endocrine therapy. It is given by injection into a muscle.
Combination therapy or polytherapy is therapy that uses more than one medication or modality. Typically,the term refers to using multiple therapies to treat a single disease,and often all the therapies are pharmaceutical. 'Pharmaceutical' combination therapy may be achieved by prescribing/administering separate drugs,or,where available,dosage forms that contain more than one active ingredient.
Pamela Ann Silver is an American cell and systems biologist and a bioengineer. She holds the Elliot T. and Onie H. Adams Professorship of Biochemistry and Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Systems Biology. Silver is one of the founding Core Faculty Members of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
In pharmacology,the term mechanism of action (MOA) refers to the specific biochemical interaction through which a drug substance produces its pharmacological effect. A mechanism of action usually includes mention of the specific molecular targets to which the drug binds,such as an enzyme or receptor. Receptor sites have specific affinities for drugs based on the chemical structure of the drug,as well as the specific action that occurs there.
Myc is a family of regulator genes and proto-oncogenes that code for transcription factors. The Myc family consists of three related human genes:c-myc (MYC),l-myc (MYCL),and n-myc (MYCN). c-myc was the first gene to be discovered in this family,due to homology with the viral gene v-myc.
Jason Swedlow is an American-born cell biologist and light microscopist who is Professor of Quantitative Cell Biology at the School of Life Sciences,University of Dundee,Scotland. He is a co-founder of the Open Microscopy Environment and Glencoe Software. In 2021,he joined Wellcome Leap as a Program Director.
Cell division protein kinase 6 (CDK6) is an enzyme encoded by the CDK6 gene. It is regulated by cyclins,more specifically by Cyclin D proteins and Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor proteins. The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the cyclin-dependent kinase,(CDK) family,which includes CDK4. CDK family members are highly similar to the gene products of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cdc28,and Schizosaccharomyces pombe cdc2,and are known to be important regulators of cell cycle progression in the point of regulation named R or restriction point.
Transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily M member 5 (TRPM5),also known as long transient receptor potential channel 5 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the TRPM5 gene.
CTP synthase 1 is an enzyme that is encoded by the CTPS1 gene in humans. CTP synthase 1 is an enzyme in the de novo pyrimidine synthesis pathway that catalyses the conversion of uridine triphosphate (UTP) to cytidine triphosphate (CTP). CTP is a key building block for the production of DNA,RNA and some phospholipids.
Ming-Ming Zhou is an American scientist who focuses on structural and chemical biology,NMR spectroscopy,and drug design. He is the Dr. Harold,Golden Lamport Professor,and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacological Sciences. He is also the Co-Director of the Drug Discovery Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai Health System in New York City,as well as Professor of Sciences.
Cancer systems biology encompasses the application of systems biology approaches to cancer research,in order to study the disease as a complex adaptive system with emerging properties at multiple biological scales. Cancer systems biology represents the application of systems biology approaches to the analysis of how the intracellular networks of normal cells are perturbed during carcinogenesis to develop effective predictive models that can assist scientists and clinicians in the validations of new therapies and drugs. Tumours are characterized by genomic and epigenetic instability that alters the functions of many different molecules and networks in a single cell as well as altering the interactions with the local environment. Cancer systems biology approaches,therefore,are based on the use of computational and mathematical methods to decipher the complexity in tumorigenesis as well as cancer heterogeneity.
Dana Pe'er,Chair and Professor in Computational and Systems Biology Program at Sloan Kettering Institute is a researcher in computational systems biology. A Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator since 2021,she was previously a professor at Columbia Department of Biological Sciences. Pe'er's research focuses on understanding the organization,function and evolution of molecular networks,particularly how genetic variations alter the regulatory network and how these genetic variations can cause cancer.
Tumour heterogeneity describes the observation that different tumour cells can show distinct morphological and phenotypic profiles,including cellular morphology,gene expression,metabolism,motility,proliferation,and metastatic potential. This phenomenon occurs both between tumours and within tumours. A minimal level of intra-tumour heterogeneity is a simple consequence of the imperfection of DNA replication:whenever a cell divides,a few mutations are acquired—leading to a diverse population of cancer cells. The heterogeneity of cancer cells introduces significant challenges in designing effective treatment strategies. However,research into understanding and characterizing heterogeneity can allow for a better understanding of the causes and progression of disease. In turn,this has the potential to guide the creation of more refined treatment strategies that incorporate knowledge of heterogeneity to yield higher efficacy.
A senolytic is among a class of small molecules under basic research to determine if they can selectively induce death of senescent cells and improve health in humans. A goal of this research is to discover or develop agents to delay,prevent,alleviate,or reverse age-related diseases. A related concept is "senostatic",which means to suppress senescence.
Mikaël Pittet is a Swiss research scientist.
Michael Z. Lin is a Taiwanese-American biochemist and bioengineer. He is an Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Bioengineering at Stanford University. He is best known for his work on engineering optically and chemically controllable proteins.
Sandro Santagata is an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and a physician-scientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he practices neuropathology. His research focuses on precision medicine in cancer biology.
