General Description

The objective of this project is to generate and characterize mouse models to better understand pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and the cooperating events that contribute to tumor development. A faithful animal model will be invaluable for identifying novel vulnerabilities and therapeutic targets for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Dr. Lozano’s laboratory has extensive experience in generating mouse models to study the effects of specific mutations on tumor development. Previous NETRF-funded researchers discovered mutations in the DAXX and ATRX genes in tumors from patients with non-functioning pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Despite these promising findings, the precise role of ATRX and DAXX in neuroendocrine tumor development is yet to be understood and treatments exploiting these findings have yet to be developed. Furthermore, researchers do not have the research tools they need to develop potential new therapies for patients exploiting these mutations.

Publication

Wasylishen AR, Estrella JS, Pant V, Chau GP, Lozano G. Daxx Functions Are p53-Independent In Vivo. Mol Cancer Res. 2018 Oct;16(10):1523-1529. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-18-0281. Epub 2018 Jun 14.