Alexander Nikitin, MD, PhD
Cornell University
Role of miR-34 in ovarian cancer
MicroRNAs are a recently discovered class of genes, important for regulation of critical proteins in the cell. We have identified a family of p53-regulated microRNAs (p53 is a protein central to many of the cell’s anti-cancer mechanisms) that are found at reduced levels in human epithelial ovarian cancer. Our preliminary results indicate that re-expression of these microRNAs reduces proliferation, adhesion-independent growth and tumorigenicity of ovarian cancer cells.