University of Colorado Cancer Center

Categories:

Signal pathways mediating autocrine growth of cancer cells

Specialty:

Lung Cancer, Head and Neck Cancer

Location:

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Department of Craniofacial Biology

Prerequisites:

Must have completed one year of college

Openings: 1

Program Objective:

To use molecular biology and pharmacological inhibitors to identify specific growth factors, their receptor tyrosine kinases and signaling enzymes mediating autocrine growth of lung cancer and head and neck cancer cell lines.

Program Description:

Students will employ the following laboratory procedures:

1. cell culture of human lung cancer and/or head and neck cancer cell lines;
2. transfection experiments with expression vectors to over-express or silence specific gene products such as growth factors and growth factor receptors;
3. perform assays to assess the effect of molecular perturbations or inhibitors on MAP kinase signaling, cell proliferation and anchorage-independent growth.