The overall goals of the Molecular Oncology & Biomarkers program are to understand the fundamental cellular and molecular processes that contribute to cancer development and progression.
Normal cells have intricate molecular mechanisms that control essential phenotypes such as differentiation, cell division and movement. The molecular pathways that control these phenotypes are disrupted in cancer cells as a result of the expression of oncogenes and loss of regulatory tumor suppressor genes. These events, which are often highly specific to individual types of cancer, disrupt specific molecular pathways that result in uncontrolled cell growth and loss of normal responses to extracellular signaling cues that result in tumor development and progression.
The research interests of the program can be divided into three broad themes:
Collectively these themes address important topics of tumor cell and molecular biology including
John K. Cowell PhD, DSc, FRCPath
“Getting to meet incredible physicians and scientists and learn about the fabulous science that takes place here has been the best part of my job so far,” Kaur said of her new position as associate director of basic science at the Georgia Cancer Center.
“Cells are very complicated systems that we are still working to understand, so we had to find a way to simplify it," said Abdul N. Malmi-Kakkada, PhD.
Dr. Justin Xavier Moore has been recognized with an American Association for Cancer Research Minorities in Cancer Research award.
"Colon cancer is largely preventable if patients undergo screening tests, like a surveillance colonoscopy starting at 45 years or earlier depending on family history."
