Epidermal Growth Factor

I. H. Madshus

Group Leader Inger Helene Madshus, Professor, M.D., Ph.D.

The projects carried out in the group center around how EGFR family members can be downregulated physiologically and experimentally. Such studies are motivated by the fact that overexpression of these RTKs is driving oncogenesis in a number of epithelial cells. Potential ways of therapeutically downregulating these proteins is therefore of utmost importance in treatment of diseases like breast cancer, prostate cancer and glioblastomas.

A prerequisite for designing mechanisms inducing therapeutic downregulation is more detailed knowledge on mechanisms normally controlling endocytosis and lysosomal degradation of the EGFR and of EGFR family members.