BMC Seminar - VMP1 in HER2 positive breast cancer

BMC Seminar Thursday 7 November, 12:00 in Læknagarður, Vatnsmýrarvegur 16, room 343

Speaker: Arsalan Amirfallah (DVM, MSc), PhD student at Inga Reynisdottir’s laboratory, Landspitali University Hospital, Department of Pathology, Cell Biology Unit and Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland

Title: Vacuole Membrane Protein 1(VMP1)’s role in HER2 positive breast cancer

Abstract: Breast cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease and thus finding prognostic and predictive genes in breast cancer is complicated. Identifying novel breast cancer genes and understanding their roles at the cellular and molecular level may predict the outcome of patients and point to new drug targets or allow for better follow-up.

Fusion genes result from genomic structural changes, which can lead to alterations in gene expression that supports tumor development. We postulated that screening fusion genes could be used as a tool to identify potentially novel cancer genes that can affect tumor development.

In this presentation I will go through the finding of VMP1 with screening of fusion genes from breast tumors and breast cancer cell lines and will show data regarding correlation of expression of VMP1 with clinicopathological characteristics and survival of two Icelandic breast cancer cohorts, TCGA and METABRIC. I will also present some preliminary data from ongoing cell based assays.