Tumor protein P53, also known as p53, cellular tumor antigen p53, the Guardian of the Genome, phosphoprotein p53, tumor suppressor p53, antigen NY-CO-13, or transformation-related protein 53 (TRP53), is any isoform of a protein encoded by homologous genes in various organisms, such as TP53 (humans) and Trp53 (mice). The p53 proteins are crucial in vertebrates, where they prevent cancer formation. As such, p53 has been described as "the guardian of the genome" because of its role in conserving stability by preventing genome mutation. Hence TP53 is classified as a tumor suppressor gene.
Sonic hedgehog protein(SHH) is encoded for by the SHH gene. The protein is named after the character Sonic the Hedgehog.
Ras, from "Rat sarcoma virus", is a family of related proteins that are expressed in all animal cell lineages and organs. All Ras protein family members belong to a class of protein called small GTPase, and are involved in transmitting signals within cells. Ras is the prototypical member of the Ras superfamily of proteins, which are all related in three-dimensional structure and regulate diverse cell behaviours.
Paracrine signaling is a form of cell signaling, a type of cellular communication in which a cell produces a signal to induce changes in nearby cells, altering the behaviour of those cells. Signaling molecules known as paracrine factors diffuse over a relatively short distance, as opposed to cell signaling by endocrine factors, hormones which travel considerably longer distances via the circulatory system; juxtacrine interactions; and autocrine signaling. Cells that produce paracrine factors secrete them into the immediate extracellular environment. Factors then travel to nearby cells in which the gradient of factor received determines the outcome. However, the exact distance that paracrine factors can travel is not certain.
The Notch signaling pathway is a highly conserved cell signaling system present in most animals. Mammals possess four different notch receptors, referred to as NOTCH1, NOTCH2, NOTCH3, and NOTCH4. The notch receptor is a single-pass transmembrane receptor protein. It is a hetero-oligomer composed of a large extracellular portion, which associates in a calcium-dependent, non-covalent interaction with a smaller piece of the notch protein composed of a short extracellular region, a single transmembrane-pass, and a small intracellular region.
Leukemia inhibitory factor, or LIF, is an interleukin 6 class cytokine that affects cell growth by inhibiting differentiation. When LIF levels drop, the cells differentiate.
Zinc finger protein GLI3 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the GLI3 gene.
Peter Walter is a German-American molecular biologist and biochemist and is Director of the Bay Area Institute of Science at Altos Labs, Professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator until 2022.
The Hedgehog signaling pathway is a signaling pathway that transmits information to embryonic cells required for proper cell differentiation. Different parts of the embryo have different concentrations of hedgehog signaling proteins. The pathway also has roles in the adult. Diseases associated with the malfunction of this pathway include cancer.
Smoothened is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SMO gene. Smoothened is a Class Frizzled G protein-coupled receptor that is a component of the hedgehog signaling pathway and is conserved from flies to humans. It is the molecular target of the natural teratogen cyclopamine. It also is the target of vismodegib, the first hedgehog pathway inhibitor to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Christopher Francis Higgins is a British molecular biologist, geneticist, academic and scientific advisor. He was the Vice-Chancellor of Durham University from 2007 to 2014. He took early retirement on 30 September 2014, following a discussion at Senate on limiting the powers of the Vice Chancellor. He was previously the director of the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre and Head of Division in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London.
Limb development in vertebrates is an area of active research in both developmental and evolutionary biology, with much of the latter work focused on the transition from fin to limb.
Indian hedgehog homolog (Drosophila), also known as IHH, is a protein which in humans is encoded by the IHH gene. This cell signaling protein is in the hedgehog signaling pathway. The several mammalian variants of the Drosophila hedgehog gene have been named after the various species of hedgehog; the Indian hedgehog is honored by this one. The gene is not specific to Indian hedgehogs.
Cytonemes are thin, cellular projections that are specialized for exchange of signaling proteins between cells. Cytonemes emanate from cells that make signaling proteins, extending directly to cells that receive signaling proteins. Cytonemes also extend directly from cells that receive signaling proteins to cells that make them.
Matthew P. Scott is an American biologist who was the tenth president of the Carnegie Institution for Science. While at Stanford University, Scott studied how embryonic and later development is governed by proteins that control gene activity and cell signaling processes. He co- discovered homeobox genes in Drosophila melanogaster working with Amy J. Weiner at Indiana University.
Michael B. Elowitz is a biologist and professor of Biology, Bioengineering, and Applied Physics at the California Institute of Technology, and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2007 he was the recipient of the Genius grant, better known as the MacArthur Fellows Program for the design of a synthetic gene regulatory network, the Repressilator, which helped initiate the field of synthetic biology. In addition, he showed, for the first time, how inherently random effects, or 'noise', in gene expression could be detected and quantified in living cells, leading to a growing recognition of the many roles that noise plays in living cells. His work in Synthetic Biology and Noise represent two foundations of the field of Systems Biology.
Philip William Ingham FRS, FMedSci, Hon. FRCP is a British geneticist, currently the Toh Kian Chui Distinguished Professor at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, a partnership between Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Imperial College, London. Previously, he was the inaugural Director of the Living Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, UK and prior to that was Vice Dean, Research at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.
Helen Margaret Blau is an American biologist and the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor and Director of the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is known for establishing the reversibility of the mammalian differentiated state. Her landmark papers showed that nuclear reprogramming and the activation of novel programs of gene expression were possible, overturning the prevailing view that the differentiated state was fixed and irreversible. Her discoveries opened the door for cellular reprogramming and its application to stem cell biology.
Clifford James Tabin is chairman of the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.
Roger Brent is an American biologist known for his work on gene regulation and systems biology. He studies the quantitative behaviors of cell signaling systems and the origins and consequences of variation in them. He is Full Member in the Division of Basic Sciences at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and an Affiliate Professor of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington.
