Lessons from the road to immortality

Speaker: Vinay TERGAONKAR, Department of Pathology and theDepartment of Biochemistry, Yong Loo LinSchool of Medicine, NUS

Venue: ZJE科研楼 2A 203-1

Abstract: Over 90% of human cancers attain immortality by transcriptional re-activation of an enzyme called telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT). While human gem and stem cells transcribe TERT, its expression is transcriptionally silenced in all somatic cells. How and why TERT is reactivated in the vast majority of human cancers remain fundamental unsolved problems in biology. l will present unpublished results which will suggest why TERT is reactivated in human cancers. l will also describe a molecular mechanism which explains how genetic and non-genetic factors, like high iron-(Fe3+), from consumption ofred meat, collude to re-activate this enzyme, thereby explaining a long-standing link between red meat and carcinogenesis. l will also describe the identification of a small molecule inhibitor of this molecular pathway that may be developed using medicinal chemistry for therapeutic use in a large proportion of human cancers where iron-Fe3+) is a key driver.