Previous Seminars
Molecular Cell Biology of Ageing Seminar - Janni Petersen
- Venue: Lecture Theatre D, Dental School
- Start: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 12:00:00 GMT
- End: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 13:00:00 GMT
Dr Janni Petersen from the University of Manchester will explain how “Target of Rapamycin (TOR) integrates environmental signals to control cell growth”
Coordinating cell growth and cell cycle progression enable multicellular eukaryotes to generate cells and organs of the appropriate size for particular cellular contexts and environments. Target of Rapamycin (TOR) signalling pathways co-ordinate cell growth with cell cycle progression in response to a variety of environmental cues including nutritional availability. Cancer is a disease of inappropriate cell growth and proliferation. Furthermore, cancer cells migrate to inappropriately colonise parts of the body where they undergo proliferation in environments in which the nutrient supply is markedly different from their normal context. Not surprisingly altered mTOR signalling has been linked to cancer. We exploit the simplicity of a single celled lifestyle and strong genetics in yeast to understand the principles of TOR signalling and identify core conserved elements of the network with the aim to subsequently study the analogous processes in humans. In shedding light on the mechanisms behind environmental and TOR pathway control of cell division we aim to set the scene for the exploitation of growth and cell cycle controls in human cancer cells that proliferate in environments different from their normal context.