In cancer, the protein known as TGF-beta is both a blessing and a curse. Among cells just beginning to turn malignant, it acts as a tumor suppressor, inhibiting their growth. But among later stage cancers, this protein that also regulates wound healing and cellular growth becomes a tumor promoter that provokes metastasis.

How can a single molecule trigger exert such contradictory effects? In fact, genes with such dual roles in cancer may be the rule rather than the exception. “When you inhibit a tumor suppressor, you encourage cancer,” explains Kunxin Luo, “That poses a challenge for treatment.”

A Berkeley professor of cell and developmental biology, Luo studies the cellular signaling pathways turned on by TGF-beta. From the moment this protein binds to a cell, it triggers a number of biochemical changes that have a fundamental effect on cancer protection and promotion. “We study in TFG-beta the complexity of these regulatory processes to develop better means of treating cancer,” Luo says.




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