Grant Winner Highlight

This month's grant winner highlight from our grant awards program is Dr. George Yousef, Principal Investigator at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Dr. Yousef reported miRNA dysregulation in kidney cancer (RCC) and provided evidence for miRNA involvement in RCC pathogenesis. Dysregulated miRNAs are predicted to effect hypoxia–related pathways and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Hypoxia is central to RCC pathogenesis, and EMT drives metastasis. Yousef’s lab will be validating the targets of two miRNAs that are biologically active regulators of RCC pathogenesis, and which simultaneously modulate the hypoxia pathway and EMT. They will integrate the miRNAs into the gene regulatory network of RCC pathogenesis. Read more.

Featured Publication

KLF7 engineered for transcriptional activation promotes axon regeneration

Members of the KLF transcription factor family regulate regenerative potential in developing central nervous system neurons. Overexpression of KLF7, which is developmentally down-regulated, promotes axonal growth in cortical neurons in vitro. To avoid problems in achieving high neuronal expression of exogenous KLF7, the researchers created a specific chimera which displayed enhanced neuronal expression compared with the native protein while maintaining transcriptional activation. The overexpression of this chimera in vivo promoted regenerative axon growth in the CST of adult mice. These findings identify a unique means of promoting CST axon regeneration in vivo by reengineering a growth-promoting transcription factor. The researchers used the LightSwitch Luciferase Assay System to help obtain data for this study. Read more.

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