Variation in regulation of gene expression: SNPs in regulatory RNA and their targets.
Project summary
We are studying the miRNA expression profiles (miRNomics) of primary tumors from breast cancer patients and analyze relevant candidate miRNAs by functional experiments. The main objective is to identify miRNAs that allow us to group patients based on miRNA expression profiles, and compare this to histopathological findings, clinical parameters and other -omics dataset from the same samples to suggests new individual or combined biomarkers for use as tools to personalize the treatment of breast cancer.
Aim
1. Identify SNP/haplotypes that affect expression or target binding of miRNAs involved in breast cancer.
2. Integrate miRNA and other data from various platforms (CGH, expression, SNPs) to generate a comprehensive understanding of the influence from miRNA deregulation in susceptibility, aggressiveness and treatment response of breast cancer.
Support
Key members: Dr. Espen Enerly, Miriam Ragle Aure and Grethe I. Grenaker Alnæs
Collaborator: Ravi Sachidanandam (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Collaborator: Eirik Frengen (Ullevål University Hospital)
Collaborator: Israel Steinfeld and Zohar Yakhini (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology)
Collaborator: Suvi-Katri Leivonen (VTT Technical Research Centre and University of Turku, Finland)