Master protein for tumor growth

Researchers have identified a master protein that regulates some 1,000 genes controlling for tumor growth and metastasis in breast cancer, according to a linkurl:paper;http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v452/n7184/abs/nature06781.html published today in Nature. The researchers, led by linkurl:Terumi Kohwi-Shigematsu;http://www.lbl.gov/lifesciences/labs/kohwi-shigematsu_lab.html at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, stumbled upon SATB1's heightened expression while screening aggressive human breast cancer tumor samples. Surprisingly, they found that SATB1 is only expressed in aggressive tumors. "SATB1 is a gene organizer, a regulator of a large body of genes," Kohwi-Shigematsu told The Scientist. "Almost 1,000 genes changed expression with SATB1 expressed." The SATB1 protein linkurl:regulates chromatin structure;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/20767/ and tissue architecture -- properties essential for tumor cells to transition into metastatic states. In addition , SATB1 regulates genes that come from all different sorts of molecular pathways, from signaling genes to growth factors. But they are all "in favor" of linkurl:metastasis;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/home/53583/ and downregulate tumor suppressor genes. "One could argue that SATB1 is...