Molecular Breast Cancer Laboratory

Research

Breast cancer is a major health problem causing major mortality and morbidity. Our main focus in the lab is to understand why and how normal breast cells are transformed into cancer cells.  To begin understanding this complex question, we are interested mainly in the 3' UTRs (untranslated regions) of mRNAs.

Main interests of the lab are :

1. Investigating   alternative polyadenylation in cancer cells

Given the significance of microRNA mediated gene expression regulation, we are interested in understanding how microRNA and mRNA interactions take place and how these interactions may be overridden by regulated alterations of 3' UTR sizes.

2. Investigating the role of non-coding RNAs in cancer cells.

microRNAs are small non-coding RNA fragments that  bind to target mRNAs to regulate their stability and/or translation. Hence, deregulated microRNAs can potentially alter the expression of numerous target proteins.

 

 

 

 

A. Elif Erson-Bensan

Prof. Dr.

PhD, 2004 , University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

MSc, 2001,  University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

BS,  1997, METU, Turkey

 

Recent Publications 

USP32 regulates late endosomal transport and recycling through deubiquitylation of Rab7.

Nat Commun. 2019 Mar 29;10(1):1454.

Alternative Polyadenylation Patterns for Novel Gene Discovery and Classification in Cancer  Neoplasia, 19(7): 574–582

Alternative Polyadenylation: Another Foe in Cancer. Molecular Cancer Research, 15-0489.