Breast Cancer: Finding the Smoking Gun
Many genes are associated with cancer. The trick is proving they actually promote tumor formation. One approach, detailed by Ian Macara, Ph.D., and colleagues last month in Cell Reports, is an in vivo “gain-of-function” screen. The researchers used a gene “library” (complementary DNA carried by lentivirus) to increase the expression of nearly 1000 different genes in mouse mammary glands, and asked if any of these genes would accelerate the formation of mammary tumors.