Alagaratnam article published in Stem Cells and Development
Sharmini Alagaratnam has worked both for the Norwegian Research Councils Program for Stem Cell Research, and the Cancer Stem Cell Innovation Center CAST, on a project to identify malignancy genes in stem cells. Part of this work has recently been published in the journal Stem Cells and Development, and represents the first direct comparison of gene expression in embryonic stem cells and their malignant counterpart, embryonal carcinoma, cultured under identical conditions. This was a collaborative study between the Molecular Genetics and the Genome Biology groups at the Department of Cancer Prevention.
A gene signature distinguishing the two cell types was identified, which included a number of cancer relevant and pluripotency genes. NR5A2 is an especially intriguing candidate given its role in the WNT-signalling pathway, which is often disrupted in cancer, and particularly so in colorectal cancer.
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