Research General Background for students interested in joining the lab.

Welcome to the laboratory.  Your mentors are Dr. Provost and Dr. Wallert.  We pride ourselves on having fun with science, working hard and creating success.   Our laboratory has anywhere from 8 to 16 students in the school year and will often have 6 to 12 students working on their projects in the summer. Project Description:  Cancer is a process where genetic mutations allow cells to grow without control.  Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer for men and women the United States.   Signals controlling normal cell growth and spreading are often the cause of this tumor formation. The activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) is an early event in the progression of some types of cancers.  Your work will be to understand which human lung cancer cell lines have high levels of MAPK activation.  You will learn how to culture human cancer cells, measure the level of MAPK activation, work with proteins, use antibodies and look at the effect of inhibiting MAPK on tumor cell growth. Below we have linked several items for you to read.  This is much more than we expect for you to get through in a single day.  It is also going to be VERY challenging for you.  Don't worry.  We understand.  But what we would like you to get from this is 1) what the laboratory research focus is; 2) an introduction to the process of cell migration and movement and 3) some of the details for what your project will cover.  You should certainly focus on the links on cell migration and cancer, the MAPK (ERK) protein and the sodium hydrogen exchanger (NHE).

Further Background on Cancer, Metastasis, the Cytoskeleton and Cell Migration The Cytoskeleton Video of Cells Closing A Wound Video of Cells Passing Through Porous Membrane (Transwell Migration Assay) Metastasis Metastatic Cancer: Questions and Answers Simple Metastasis Video

Two G protein-coupled receptors activate Na+/H+ exchanger isoform 1 in Chinese hamster lung fibroblasts through an ERK-dependent pathway   M.A. Wallert, H.L. Thronson, N.L. Korpi, S.M. Olmschenk, A.C. McCoy, M.R. Funfar and J.J. Provost	Phospholipase C-beta1 mediates alpha1-adrenergic receptor-stimulated activation of the sodium-hydrogen exchanger in Chinese hamster lung fibroblasts (CCL39).  Provost JJ, Olmschenk SM, Metcalf AL, Korpi N, Thronson H, Liu M, Wallert MA.
Cell migration requires both ion translocation and cytoskeletal anchoring by the Na-H exchanger NHE1.   Sheryl P. Denker and Diane L. Barber	Na_/H_ exchanger NHE1 as plasma membrane scaffold in the assembly of signaling complexes   Martin Baumgartner, Hitesh Patel, and Diane L. Barber

We are located on the second floor of Science Lab in room 208.
Click this link for a map to the building.