Genetic network of the cell cycle
Aberrant CDK activity underpins growth of all tumors. Several CDK inhibitors are, or have been, in clinical trial for cancer chemotherapy, with mixed outcome. A major problem with current chemotherapeutics is their toxicity and side-effects, such as immunosuppression, myelosuppression, nausea, and in some cases secondary neoplasms.
One goal of my lab is to identify (a) the pathways that are controlled by CDKs, and (b) the pathways that function in parallel to these CDK-controlled pathways to promote robust cell cycle progression.
Unraveling this genetic network of the cell cycle will facilitate development of pharmaceutical drugs that specifically and efficiently block cell cycle progression of tumor cells. We are make use of several cdk1 mutant alleles to perform genome-wide genetic screens in budding yeast to map all the genetic pathways that involve CDK1.