Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory William Scandling
Developmental Chair Clodagh O'Shea, an assistant professor in
the Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, is employing the help
of a small DNA virus, called adenovirus, to both understand and
treat cancer. Normally, cellular replication is tightly
controlled. However, both DNA viruses and tumor cells sabotage
such controls to drive their respective pathological
propagation, albeit with one small difference: In tumor cells
the key cellular players are targeted via mutations, while in
infected cells viral proteins achieve the same end. Not
surprisingly, many of the cellular targets are the same. Dr.
O'Shea lab is exploiting this overlap to help address three key
questions: What are the critical cellular targets and pathways
that drive deregulated growth? Human tumors acquire a myriad of
mutations, which makes it difficult to pinpoint the critical
therapeutic targets. In contrast, Adenovirus encodes a
relatively small number of proteins that overcome all the