Catherine Margaret Shachaf
Catherine Margaret Shachaf | |
|---|---|
קתרין מרגרט שחף | |
| Born | Vasco da Gama, Goa, India |
| Alma mater | Technion - Israel Institute of Technology |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cell Biology |
| Workplaces | Stanford University |
Catherine Margaret Shachaf (Hebrew: קתרין מרגרט שחף) is an Indian cell biologist. She previously held an instructor position at Stanford University School of Medicine, and has made discoveries in cancer research. Shachaf is on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Green Nanotechnology.
Education
Ph.D: Israel Institute of Technology, Molecular Medicine.[1]
Key scientific contributions
Shachaf has researched how MYC expression induces cancer in mice and the effect of its inactivation in those tumors. She showed that removing MYC expression kills the tumor and that MYC reprograms the tumor cells. When MYC expression is taken away from the tumor cells, they are released to their inherent embryonic program.[2] The appearance of the tissue formed in this process looks normal by histology (a method used by pathologists to determine the presence of cancer cells). However, Shachaf showed that the cells derived from the tumor are "camouflaged" to appear normal but have the capability to easily revert and become tumors.[3]
The MYC protein in cancers correlates with poor prognosis and is a difficult therapeutic target. To find alternative downstream targets of MYC, Shachaf defined levels of MYC expression required to drive tumorigenic properties. She conducted a systematic genomic and proteomic profile of MYC dependent tumor cells using microarray analysis, mass spectrometry, cell-antibody arrays and phospho-flow (a flow cytometry based approach to study phosphorylation events in single cells).[4] As a member of the Stanford NCI funded Integrated Cancer Biology Program (ICBP), Shachaf and her colleagues developed a computational program of the genes and gene programs that are required to maintain cancers at different stages of aggressiveness. Using this program, Shachaf and her team found the gene silencing and apoptotic programs to be most significant in inducing tumor cell death.
References
- ↑ Transcriptional Regulation of the Kidney Specific Sodium-Phosphate Co-Transporter Npt2 Archived 2020-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Shachaf CM. and Felsher D. W. Rehabilitation of cancer through oncogene inactivation. Trends in Molecular Medicine. 2005 June 11 (7):316-21. Shachaf CM.and Felsher D. W.Tumor dormancy and MYC inactivation: pushing cancer to the brink of normalcy. Cancer Res. 2005 June 1;65(11):4471-4.
- ↑ Shachaf CM. and Felsher D. W. Rehabilitation of cancer through oncogene inactivation. Trends in Molecular Medicine. 2005 June 11 (7):316-21. Shachaf CM.and Felsher D. W.Tumor dormancy and MYC inactivation: pushing cancer to the brink of normalcy. Cancer Res. 2005 June 1;65(11):4471-4; Shachaf C.M., Gentles A, Elchuri S, Sahoo D, Gentles A, Soen Y, Sharpe O, Perez OD, Chang M, Mitchel D, Amati B, Dill D, Nolan GP, Plevritis SK and Felsher DW. Systematic molecular analysis of a MYC overexpressing tumor cell following MYC inactivation. Cancer Res. 2008 Jul 1;68(13):5132-42.
- ↑ Shachaf, CM.; Perez, OD; Youssef, S.; Fan, AC.; Elchuri, S.; Goldstein, MJ.; Shirer, AE.; Sharpe, O.; Chen, J.; Mitchell, DJ.; Chang, M.; Nolan, GP.; Steinman, L.; Felsher, DW (Oct 2007). "Targeted Inactivation of HMG-CoAReductase by Atorvastatin Prevents and Reverses MYC Induced Tumorigenesis". Blood. 110 (7): 2674–84. doi:10.1182/blood-2006-09-048033. PMC 1988916. PMID 17622571.