Research in my laboratory focuses on elucidation of cell signaling mechanisms regulated by phosphoinositide second messengers that are relevant to serious medical disorders such as Cancer, Diabetes and Muscular Dystrophy. My long term objective is to apply the knowledge of basic science to design and develop new anti-cancer drugs and experimental tools for use in the process of anti-cancer drug discovery. keywords:Cell Signaling Mechanisms in Cancer, Diabetes and Muscle atrophy
- Primary focus of my research is phosphotidylinositol signaling, and in particular, the role of 5' inositol phosphatase SHIP2 in Cancer. My previous work on SHIP2 in tumor cells demonstrated a regulatory role for SHIP2 in cell adhesion and spreading downstream of Src family kinases (Mol Cell Biol. 2001, 21, 1416; J Cel Sci. 2002, 115, 3807). Based on this and on preliminary results (unpublished) from RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated gene silencing experiments in tumor cells, I hypothesize that SHIP2 plays an important role in tumor cell metastasis, survival and/or proliferation. An elaborate study is underway to experimentally test this hypothesis using multiple approaches including the generation of tissue-specific genetic knockout mice.
