Congratulations to Wayne Miles, whose grant entitled "The translational regulation of pro-apoptotic genes" has been funded by the National Institutes of Health

The inactivation of the Retinoblastoma 1 protein (pRB) is one of the most common alterations in cancer. The widespread loss of pRB in cancer underscores a significant puzzle in the field: why don’t pRB-deficient cells simply die? Building on the finding that loss of the RB1 tumor suppressor results in the transcription of cell death genes, but not a corresponding increase in cell death proteins, the Miles lab demonstrated  that the translation of these cell death mRNAs is silenced by the Pumilio complex of RNA binding protein(s). The funded project will utilize a unique Auxin-inducible degron-mediated protein degradation system to dissect the detailed mechanism(s) associated with Pumilio complex regulation of pRB-regulated cell death transcripts in model human cells, Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) cells and a well- defined murine SCLC model.