Center of Integrative Biology began seminar cycle with talks about cancer cell treatment
On this session of seminar, PhD. Matías Escobar, who is a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania explained the ability of certain cell signaling pathways to mediate the reactivation and proliferation of cancer cells.
In women, breast cancer is the first cause of death worldwide, according to information from the International Journal of Cancer and institutions dedicated to studying this disease. And for PhD. Matias Escobar-Aguirre, post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Cancer Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, this "mortality" is mainly linked to the metastatic recurrence that follows the initial treatment of cancer.
This was emphasized by the researcher, who was in charge of the seminar "Revealing new regulators of survival and the recurrence of latent cancerous cells". In this opportunity was inaugurated the meetings that the Center of Integrative Biology (CIB) of the U. Mayor performs twice a month and convenes researchers to discuss crucial projects in the advancement of Science.
In This first meeting, held on March 8th, PhD. Escobar explained the function of certain cell signaling pathways, which are proteins present in our cells. These may have different levels of regulation to mediate the reactivation and proliferation of cancer cells, which could mean new treatments for breast cancer directed at inactive tumor cells.
Considering that the mechanism that allows the survival of these cells is not very well known, the laboratory where the investigator works generated transgenic mice to express the oncogene that allows the formation of tumors in latent state.
On this research, PhD. Mario Sanhueza, a postdoctoral researcher at the CIB, commented that "The idea is to understand the times when cancer cells are reactivated to prevent the recurrence of cancer in previously treated patients. Knowledge of the molecules in charge of this process could prevent the recurrence and lethality of various types of cancer. "
The scientist also emphasized the importance of these seminars, which have been held twice per month for three years, underlining that "we have the luck of receiving guests of international level, being a great opportunity for the whole community University to know the current scientific trends”.
Cell Migration and microscopy
It should be noted that on Tuesday, March 26, at 11:00 was presented PhD. Ulrich Kubitscheck of the University of Bonn (Germany) who explained the scope of modern microscopy and its applications in the seminar Titled "A new microscopy technique that increases the resolution of nervous system mapping to previously unreached levels."
On Thursday, March 28, at 13:00, PhD. Ana-Maria Lennon, of the Institut Curie de Paris, presented the seminar "Cellular Migration Under pressure" which approached how this process can be guided by both chemical and physical signals, highlighting also its importance in the generation of immune responses.
Both encounters were open to all public, and were held in the Research Building of The Campus Huechuraba.
