Rosemary Akhurst, PhD
	The TGF-beta signaling pathway and cancer stem cells
	Email: rakhurst@cc.ucsf.edu
Selected Publications | Complete Publications

Components of the TGF-β signaling pathway are essential in stem cell maintenance and lineage specification of both embryonic, adult and cancer stem cells. The Akhurst lab is undertaking a functional dissection of genetic loci, Tgfbm1, Tgfbm2 and Tgfbm3, that modify biological responses to TGF-β1 during angiogenesis and vascular remodeling. We hypothesize that Tgfbm loci regulate the ability of haematopoietic stem and endothelial progenitor cells to mobilize from the bone marrow and a) to home to sites of vascular injury during tissue repair, and b) to home to the pre-metastatic niche during tumorigenesis.

Selected Publications

1. *Oft, M., Akhurst, R.J. and Balmain, A. Metastasis is driven by sequential elevation of H-ras and Smad2 levels. Nature Cell Biology, 4: 487-494, 2002.

2. Ewan, KB., Ravani, S.A., Shyamala, G., Tang, Y., Akhurst, R.J., Wakefield, L. and Barcellos-Hoss, M.H. Latent Transforming Growth Factor-beta Activation in Mammary Gland : Regulation by Ovarian Hormones Affects Ductal and Alveolar Proliferation. Am. J. Pathol. 160, 2081-2093, 2002.

3. Ewan, K. B., Henshall-Powell, R. L. , Ravani, S. A., Parjares, M. J. , Arteaga, C. Warters, , R., Akhurst, R.J. and Barcellos-Hoff, M. H. Depletion of Transforming Growth Factor-$ð 1 Blocks Radiation-Induced Apoptosis and p53 Response Cancer. Res 62, 5627-31, 2002.

4. *Tang, Y., McKinnon, M.L., Leong, L.M., Rusholme, S.A.B., Wang, S. and Akhurst, R.J. Genetic modifiers interact with maternal determinants in vascular development of Tgfb1-/- mice Human Molecular Genetics 12, 1579-1679, 2003.

5. Chan, C.K., Pham, L.N., Chinn, C, Spee, C. Ryan, S.J., Akhurst, R.J. and Hinton, D. R. Mouse Strain-dependent Heterogeneity of Resting Limbal Vasculature. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 45(2):441-447, 2004.

6. Tang, Y., Lee, K.S., Yang, H.T., Logan, D.W., Wang, S., McKinnon, M.L., Holt, L.J., Condie, A., Luu, M.T. and

Akhurst R. J.

7. Poon, E., Clermont, F., Firpo, M.T. and Akhurst, R.J. TGF² inhibition of yolk sac-like differentiation of human embryonic stem cell-derived embryoid bodies illustrates differences between early mouse and human development. J. Cell Sci. 119, 759-68, 2006.

8. Lacher, M.D., Tiirikainen, M.I., Saunier, E.F., Christian, C., Anders, M., Oft, M., Balmain, A., Akhurst, R.J. and Korn, W.M. TGF² Receptor Inhibition Enhances Adenoviral Infectivity of Carcinoma Cells Via Up-regulation of CAR in Conjunction with Reversal of Epithelial- Mesenchymal-Transition. Cancer Res. 66:1648-57, 2006.

9. *Mao, J-H., Saunier, E.F., de Koning, J., McKinnon, M.M., Higgins, M.N., Nicklas, K., Yang, H-T., Balmain, A. and Akhurst, R.J. Genetic variants of Tgfb1 act as context-dependent modifiers of mouse skin tumor susceptibility. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci (USA) 103(21):8125-30. 2006.

Information last updated September 2007