Agami, Reuven
Our two main research subjects are to understand the tumorigenic process and DNA-damage pathways in humans. Most human tumors harbor multiple genetic alterations that activate oncogenes, inhibit tumor suppressors and induce genomic instability. As each tumor contains many genetic alterations, the study of the contribution of each variation to carcinogenesis and to the maintenance the cancerous phenotype was obscured. In the past, we developed a vector-based system that mediates suppression of gene expression through RNA interference (pSUPER). We used, and are still using, this gene inactivation system to study the importance of tumor-suppressors and DNA-damage checkpoints in protecting humans from cancer. We also applied high-throughput RNAi libraries to uncover novel tumor suppressors and DNA-damage checkpoint genes and characterize their role in cancer prevention. Lately, we developed a novel microRNA (miRNA) expression vector, library and a barcode array. These tools are used extensively in our lab in search for cancerous miRNAs.
E-mail address: r.agami@nki.nl
Link to (personal) website: here