DOC-l Mediated Apoptosis in Mammalian Cells I am currently doing a rotation in the laboratory of Dr. David Wong attempting to characterize the function and mechanisms of action of the tumor suppressor gene human doc-l. This gene was originally discovered by Dr. Wong's group to be missing in certain types of oral squamous cell carcinomas. It is suspected to induce apoptosis when activated and lead to uncontrolled cell growth when deleted. I have cloned the doc-l gene into an inducible gene expression system. This allows for activation of transcription of doc-l when administering the inducing agent, which is a steroid hormone, but prevents transcription when not induced. This first step was an important prerequisite for future cell culture because cells containing an intact and actively transcribed doc-l gene are difficult to grow and maintain. The second phase of my research involves transfecting this vector construct into transformed mammalian cells, inducing the gene with the hormone and observing the effects in vitro. I eventually would like to establish clones of cells with the inducible form of doc-l stably integrated into the genome of several types of transformed mammalian cell lines.
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