Tough to Stomach — Dr. Anne Muesch has been awarded $2.5 million over five years by the National Cancer Institute to study how a bacterium that colonizes the gastric mucosa, known as Helicobacter pylori, causes gastritis and increases the risk of stomach cancer. Gastric carcinoma is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths and the fourth most common cancer in the world. A gene expressed in particularly virulent strains of H. pylori, called cytotoxin-associated gene A (CagA) induces loss of polarity (organization of cell shape and structures), increased migration and destruction of gastric epithelial cells, in part by inhibiting a conserved cell polarity determinant, the serine/threonine kinase Par1. Dr. Muesch’s group has identified 76 putative epithelial Par1 substrates in an unbiased screen that they will evaluate for their involvement in the disruption of epithelial polarity upon CagA expression and H. pylori infection. She is associate professor of developmental & molecular biology.
Posted on: Tuesday, August 14, 2012