Mina Bissell (Berkeley) Why Don’t We Get More Cancer: The tales of ECM and p53 signaling

Research in the last three decades has been focused on the crucial role of extracellular matrix (ECM), and in particular laminin 111, as fundamental regulators in breast cancer. This molecule plays an extremely important role in organ- and tissue- specificity and form and function. The ECM of each tissue dictates how normal remains normal and how aberration in its components or the loss of laminins will eventually lead to genomic instability and cancer.
I will discuss, the important role of laminin and its receptors in drug resistance and therapy. Our current data connect laminin1 and laminin5 to regulation of p53 and many other transcription factors in physiologically relevant 3D models.
Finally, our current findings indicate a direct mechanical connection between the ECM and the nucleus and this is consistent with our discovery that nuclei contain a tunnel with cytoskeleton bundles connected to the nuclear envelope.