Discovery of the Tumour Suppressor PTEN Flashcards
Timeline of PTEN discovery: 1984-97
Discovery that the loss of genetic material on chromosome 10 present in various cancer
Timeline of PTEN discovery: 1996-97
Transferring a normal chromosome 10 suppressed the tumourigenecity of certain brain tumours with mice suggesting the presence of a tumour suppressor protein on chromosome 10
Timeline of PTEN discovery: 1997
Two laboratories genetically mapped a tumour suppressor gene (PTEN) located on the frequently mutated chromosome 10 region q23.3
Timeline of PTEN discovery: 1997-98
PTEN was found to be mutated or deleted in a high percentage of brain, prostate, breast, and kidney cancer cell lines
Timeline of PTEN discovery: 2001-current
Subsequent studies concluded that mutations in the PTEN gene is a major event transforming tumours from a benign state to an aggressively malignant state
Who was bioinformatics originally coined by?
Hogeweg and Hesper
What was bioinformatics originally coined in 1970?
The study of informatic processes in biotic systems
What does bioinformatics combine?
A variety of disciplines to study biology in sillico
What are some of the principle applications of bioinformatics?
- Method development
- Computational tools
- Modelling
- Visualization
- Data storage
- Data curation
- Hypothesis generating
When is bioinformatics a powerful tool?
During functional characterization of a protein of interest
What types of fundamental bioinformatic tools are discussed?
- Prediction of protein function
- Database mining
How is the likely function of a protein of unknown function predicted?
By taking a primary protein sequence and basing it on a conserved domain search
What can database mining rapidly provide?
A database program where one can gather a wealth of organized information on any protein of interest
What was an AI breakthrough in biology?
Google DeepMinds
What was the predicted function of PTEN in the “Science” article from 1997?
- Has a protein tyrosine phosphatase domain and extensive homology to tensin, a protein that interacts with actin filaments at local adhesions
- These homologies suggest that PTEN may suppress tumour cell growth by antagonizing protein tyrosine kinase and may regulate tumour cell invasion and metastasis through interactions at focal adhesions