Hormones play a pivotal role in the regulation of cellular processes related to cell growth and differentiation. The significance of steroid and peptide hormones for tumour initiation and progression in organs or tissues of various species including humans has been documented by experimental and epidemiological studies. Various hormone-stimulated signal transduction pathways related to tumour induction and progression have been unravelled and their components have been identified and characterised. Steroid and peptide hormone signalling pathways show major differences. Peptide hormones bind to receptors localised in the plasma membrane and trigger a cascade of phosphorylation reactions through protein kinases, eventually resulting in activation of gene expression in the nucleus. Steroid hormones bind to and activate nuclear receptors which function as transcription factors. Recent work has revealed manifold interactions between both types of signalling pathways.

The interest of our group focusses on the study of hormone-controlled gene expression in carcinomas of the breast and prostate, as well as on the interaction of steroid-triggered signalling with components of other cellular signal transduction pathways.

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