Functional profiling discovers new cancer-relevant genes and proteins
Head: Ulrich Tschulena, Stefan Wiemann
Members: Stephanie Bechtel, Ioanna Keklikoglou, Cindy Horwedel, Ute Ernst, Nina Claudino, Anja Irsigler, Angelika Duda, Cornelia Wirth, Heike Wilhelm, Christian Schmidt
Former members: Dorit Arlt, Özgür Sahin, Ulrike Korf, Ruth Wellenreuther, Mamatha Sauermann, Meher Majety, Florian Hahne, Andreja Vasiljev, Alexander Mehrle, Detlev Bannasch, Petra Moosmayer, Regina Albert, Markus Seiler, Rainer Will, Esther Backes
The function of many human genes/proteins and their possible relationship to disease is unknown. To obtain a insights into protein function(s), we have established
RNAi and ORFeome resources for gene loss- and gain-of-function phenotypic anlyses. The open reading frames of cDNAs identified, cloned, and sequence validated in the
International ORFeome Collaboration are expressed to determine the
sub-cellular localization.
We have established a number of cellular assays to investigate cancer-relevant cellular processes.
The ORFeome and RNAi resources are further applied in high-throughput functional screens addressing cell cycle regulation and signaling processes to identify and validate genes and proteins with potential roles in cancer (e.g., Wiemann 2004, Arlt 2005).
We have adapted these assays to high throughput, which required substantial developments in process automation. A software pipeline has been developed with the bioinformatics projects of the department to handle and process the large amounts of data generated in the various assays.
Collaborations
R. Pepperkok & A-C. Gavin, EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
A. Schneeweiss, University Clinics and National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg, Germany
B. Lange, Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany
Y. Yarden, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
N. Hynes, Friedrich-Miescher Institute, Basel, Switzerland
A. Ridley, University College London, UK
T. Fehm & B. Gueckel, University Clinics Tuebingen, Germany
T. Beissbarth, University Goettingen, Germany
Funding
Functional profiling and associated projects are part of the network project
IG-Cellular Systems Genomics, which is funded in the German National Genome Research Project (NGFN).
Medical Systems Biology (MedSys) - BreastSys project
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Deutsch-Israelisches Projekt - DIP)
