Thomas Chittenden (Immunogen Inc., Cambridge, Mass.): "This work was done in the lab of David M. Livingston at the Dana- Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The retinoblastoma protein (Rb) belongs to a class of growth regulatory proteins, termed tumor suppressors, which function to prevent tumorigenesis. Livingston's laboratory has been interested in understanding, at a molecular level, how Rb negatively regulates cell growth. In 1991 several groups, including our own, demonstrated that Rb forms a complex with the cellular transcription factor E2F. E2F contributes to the cell cycle-dependent transcription of a multitude of genes involved in DNA synthesis and cell proliferation.
"This work is an effort to understand how the activity of E2F is coordinated with the cell cycle. We show that regulation of E2F involves an interaction with Rb in G1, whereas in S phase, E2F forms a complex with an Rb-related protein, p107, and cyclin A. Similar findings were ...
