Molecularly targeted therapy of oncology patients

Research concept

The molecularly targeted therapy of oncology patients is possible because the activation of selected oncogenes act as the initial signal for increased cell proliferation. As these change occur early in the tumorigenesis, almost all cells of the tumor have these mutations. Inhibiting such a pathway makes it possible to gain a significant inhibition of tumor growth. However, to date, it was not possible to reach a response rate over 50%. The most probable reason behind this is tumor heterogeneity – different patients have different pathways activated and we do not have biomarkers to select the most active in each patient. In present research our goal is to uncover new biomarkers of molecularly targeted therapy in breast cancer. First we use a pre-existing database to identify new predictive biomarkers. At the same time we develop an in vitro model system to validate, compare, and rank the best hits. Our research will help to stratify oncology patients for better treatment outcome by receiving agents with higher success rate. At the same time, we will also uncover new therapy targets for future pharmaceutical drug developments.

Research services

• Bioinformatic analysis

• Gene chip processing

• RNA-seq data processing

• Citotoxicity assay (HTS)

• Assay development

• Transporter interaction analysis

Human resources

• Gergely Szakács, MTA TTK EI, group leader
• Balázs Győrffy, MTA TTK EI, group leader
• Ibolya Kurkó, assitant, MTA TTK EI
• Nóra Kucsma, scientific fellow, MTA TTK EI
• Tibor Nagy, MTA TTK EI, scientific fellow, MTA TTK EI
• Ádám Nagy, MTA TTK EI, scientific fellow, MTA TTK EI

Laboratories, rooms

• Sterile cell culture lab

Equipments

• Hamilton STAR Let liquid handling robot system
• EnSpire microplate reader (Perkin Elmer)

Recent publications of the research group