Using integrative genomic approaches to understand the biology of pancreatic cancer
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, subsequently referred to as pancreatic cancer, is one of the most deadly cancers with a five-year survival of only 5%. Typical treatment regimens include surgery and chemotherapy while targeted therapies are lacking. A better understanding of the underlying cancer biology may yield novel therapeutic targets. The field of genomics has transformed our ability to study cancer. Over the past two decades, microarray and sequencing based innovations have enabled biology to be carried out at the --omic scale (discussed further in Chapter 1). This dissertation employs --omic level analysis to query the differences between the pancreatic cancer genome and the normal human genome. First, high throughput structural characterizations were performed in order to annotate the mutated, rearranged, deleted, and amplified genes across seventy pancreatic cancers. These assays identified hundreds of candidate cancer genes. Among these candidates, SMURF1 was validated to be an oncogene (Chapter 2). Furthermore, various subunits of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex were validated to be tumor suppressor genes (Chapter 3). While SMURF1 and SWI/SNF were validated individually, the other candidates from structural studies were evaluated in parallel shRNA competive growth screen. From this, we characterize nine genes further -- some previously known to play a role in cancer and some novel (Chapter 4). The sum total of all of this work is a much deeper understanding of the biology of pancreatic cancer, yielding many novel therapeutic targets and hopefully allowing scientists to gain a foothold in the fight against this disease.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Shain, Alan Hunter | |
|---|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Cancer Biology Program. | |
| Primary advisor | Pollack, Jonathan D | |
| Thesis advisor | Pollack, Jonathan D | |
| Thesis advisor | Chang, Howard | |
| Thesis advisor | Lipsick, Joseph Steven, 1955- | |
| Thesis advisor | Lowe, Anson W | |
| Advisor | Chang, Howard | |
| Advisor | Lipsick, Joseph Steven, 1955- | |
| Advisor | Lowe, Anson W |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Alan Hunter Shain. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Interdisciplinary Cancer Biology Program. |
| Thesis | Ph.D. Stanford University 2012 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2012 by Alan Hunter Shain
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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