Supervisor:
Program of Study:
MSc, Pathology
Project Title:
Splicing kinase pre-mRNA processing factor 4 kinase (PRP4K) insufficiency and cell stress signaling.
Lay Research Summary:
The pre-mRNA processing factor kinase PRP4K is a gene that is highly conserved and found in many organisms from single cell organisms to humans. Although PRP4K is an essential gene due to its role in regulating the splicing of the messenger RNA molecules that instruct the cell to make different proteins. Despite being an essential protein in human cells, work from the Dellaire laboratory and others has demonstrated that partial loss of PRP4K expression is common in breast and ovarian cancer, and leads to messenger RNA and cellular changes that make these cancers more aggressive. Why PRP4K is essential in so many organisms, and how its partial loss contributes to cancer development, remains unknown. When tumours grow however, their mitochondria that produce energy for the cell have altered function, and can create reactive oxygen species (ROS) that activate the cell’s defense mechanisms to turn on anti-oxidant signaling pathways that affect cancer cell survival. In this study, we will determine how PRP4K loss alters cancer cell oxidative stress signaling and mitochondrial function. Ultimately, this study will provide new fundamental knowledge that may explain why PRP4K is essential in so many organisms as well as potentially new molecular pathways for targeting cancer cells that have low PRP4K expression.
Location:
Dalhousie University