The rockefeller university

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Angelika Amon, Ph.D., Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor of Cancer Research, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Speaker bio(s)

Aneuploidy is a hallmark of cancer. Understanding how aneuploidy impacts cell physiology is thus vital for understanding the principles underlying tumor formation. Dr. Amon’s laboratory developed yeast and mouse models to study the effects of aneuploidy on cell physiology. Their analyses revealed that the condition causes chromosome-specific phenotypes and, remarkably, phenotypes shared by many different aneuploid yeast and mouse cells, which they collectively call the aneuploidy-associated stresses. Among these stresses, proteotoxic stress caused by aneuploidy-induced proteomic changes appears especially prominent. Dr. Amon will discuss how aneuploidy affects protein quality control systems in both yeast and mammalian cells, with a focus on autophagy. 

 

Dr. Amon’s laboratory also developed in vivo mouse models to study the effects of aneuploidy on cellular fitness and tumorigenesis. Using hematopoietic reconstitution assays, they find that aneuploidy leads to decreased fitness of stem cells in vivo. Their ability to proliferate and reconstitute the hematopoietic system in vivo is significantly reduced, leading to macrocytosis and bone marrow failure. Dr. Amon’s studies further indicate that aneuploidy also reduces the fitness of immortalized and transformed cells. Thus, aneuploidy has a significant impact on fitness in all contexts. Dr. Amon will discuss the implications of these findings for tumorigenesis and ways in which aneuploidy could promote tumorigenesis despite its anti-proliferative effects.

 

Dr. Amon received her Ph.D. in biology from the University of Vienna in 1993. She did her postdoctoral research at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in the laboratory of Dr. Ruth Lehmann. In 1999, she joined the faculty of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, where she is currently the Kathleen and Curt Marble Professor of Cancer Research. She has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 2000. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Amon is the recipient of numerous honors for her work, including a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellowship in 1994, a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 1999, the Alan T. Waterman Award in 2003, the Paul Marks Prize in 2007, a National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology in 2008, an Ellison Foundation Senior Scholar Award in 2012, and the Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine in 2013.

Open to

Public

Host

Titia de Lange, Ph.D.

Reception

Refreshments, 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Abby Lounge

Contact

Linda Hanssler

Phone

(212) 327-7714

Sponsor

Linda Hanssler
(212) 327-7714
lhanssler@rockefeller.edu

Readings

http://librarynews.rockefeller.edu/?p=4101