Laura Sontag (Computational and Systems Biology doctoral student)
Advisors: Professors Peter Sorger (Biology/BE, MIT) and Doug Lauffenburger (Biology/BE, MIT), in collaboration with Prof. Tyler Jacks (Biology/Center for Cancer Research, MIT)
Computational and experimental analysis of mitogenic signaling pathways
activated by mutations in the K-ras oncogene. The Ras signaling cascade
constitutes a major pathway shown to be deregulated due to activating
mutations in 30% of all human tumors. The vast majority of mutations occur in K-ras. We use genetically engineered mice that harbor a conditional,
activatable K-ras allele as a model of human cancer.
