Researcher of the Week: Albert Zhou

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:42:40 -0400

The prostate is a male accessory sex gland that stores and secretes proteins into the seminal fluid during ejaculation. Prostate cancer accounts for approximately 30,000 deaths annually in the United States alone. A number of genes have been implicated in the origin and progression of prostate cancer. One possible mechanism in human prostate cancer involves both the activation of an oncogene (MYC) and the loss of function of a tumor suppressor gene (PTEN). Mouse models based only on the overexpression of MYC or the loss of function of Pten have been derived. However, no mouse model exists in which both these events are replicated. The aim of this study was to generate prostate-specific activation of MYC and the loss of Pten in a single mouse model. To achieve this goal, we have taken advantage of a prostate-specific Hoxb13 promoter to drive the MYC oncogene (Hoxb13/MYC) and Cre recombinase (Hoxb13/Cre) with a floxed Pten mouse. Mice carrying these modifications were interbred and their progeny analyzed by Southern blot and PCR techniques for inheritance of all three transgenes. To date, we have identified mice that carry all three alleles. We are waiting for phenotypic analysis of these mice in terms of development of prostate cancer.