Reference no: EM132586523

Assignment - Let's continue our discussion of cancer. We already covered the requirements for mutations in both proto-oncogenes (requiring only one of your two gene copies to acquire hyperactivity or elevated expression) and tumor suppressor genes to obtain cancer. This is part of the multi-hit notion of cancer in which you accumulate mutation over time.

Now imagine yourself sitting in a lodge with 5 of your closest friends. You are all squeezed together sitting on a wonderfully comfortable couch, side by side (maybe your arms are entangled as you stretch out next to each other), the fire place is roaring and there is the leftover feast that you are thinking about polishing off. Instead, all of a sudden you have the urge to leave. You disentangle your arms, get up from that wonderfully cushy couch and without grabbing as much as a slice of pecan pie or a coat - exit the lodge. Cold - you walk through the wilderness. After 7 miles you come across three houses. One is made of straw, one of sticks and the third of stone. You do not enter (no huffing or puffing in this fable), but instead decide to build a small shelter on the side of one of the houses. It doesn't go well so you give up and start building a shelter on the second house. This goes much better and you stay put and divide (ok - a bit more SciFi here).

We typically limit thinking of cancer those terms of oncogenic/suppressor mutations. Consider instead, however, that cancer, especially metastatic cancer cells, are exhibiting behaviours far beyond unregulated proliferation.

Part 1. Before you go any further with this assignment - think carefully about how environment might contribute to 'cancerous' behaviours. Write a paragraph and/or draw a model in which you integrate genetic and environmental cues regarding cancer progression. This last section of the course should provide you with a lot of clues - but I want you to generate a hypothesis and defend it with what you know so far. No peeking ahead (practicing brainstorming is both fun and builds your scientific muscles)!

II - More popcorn!!!! Now - go to Ibiology website and watch the Extracellular Matrix and Tissue Specificity video starring the engaging Dr. Bissell. Then answer the follow.

1. Why is Dr. Bissel not rich (or at least not as rich as she could be?). The lesson here - don't ignore a solution that you figured out to a nagging problem!

2. At some point during her talk, she discusses a spectacular experiment in which they encourage tumor production from normal human breast cells - and they are able to do this in vitro. Describe what was done.

3. Dr. Bissell later discusses mechanisms through which tumor cells can revert to 'normalcy'. How did she do this?

4. What specific factor did she ultimately identify in impacting tumor cell behaviour.

5. This video was produced in 2011. She (and her lab) remains quite active. Identify any paper published from her lab subsequent to this video (you should all be PubMed competent!) and summarize the findings in a paragraph. Do not cut/paste - look a the data/figures and see if you can summarize the finding in your own words.