New insights into colorectal tumourigenesis

Congratulations to Dr Kevin Myant and colleagues whose paper entitled “HUWE1 is a critical colonic tumour suppressor gene that prevents MYC signalling, DNA damage accumulation and tumour initiation” : January 2017

Congratulations to Dr Kevin Myant and colleagues whose paper entitled “HUWE1 is a critical colonic tumour suppressor gene that prevents MYC signalling, DNA damage accumulation and tumour initiation” has recently been published in “EMBO Molecular Medicine”, a high profile journal of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). The work identified the HUWE1 gene, which is mutated in up to 15% of colorectal cancers, as a tumour suppressor gene that, when mutated or deleted, might drive colorectal cancer initiation. It also suggested that tumours bearing HUWE1 mutations might be vulnerable to DNA damaging agents and inhibitors of anti-apoptotic proteins providing guidance for future clinical developments in treatment of bowel cancer.

This exciting work directly led to Dr Myant’s successful application for funding from the European Research Council (ERC). The £1.3M ERC starting grant entitled “Defining novel mechanisms critical for colorectal tumourigenesis” will strengthen Kevin’s research into the roles of genetic alterations in colorectal cancer - the fourth most common cancer in the UK and one of the key research areas in the CRUK Edinburgh Centre.

Links

Dr Kevin Myant: http://www.ed.ac.uk/cancer-centre/research/myant-group

paper: http://embomolmed.embopress.org/content/early/2016/12/21/emmm.201606684.long

European Molecular Biology Organization: http://www.embo.org/

colorectal cancers, bowel cancer: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/bowel-cancer

European Research Council: https://erc.europa.eu/about-erc