A biochemical reaction called ubiquitination occurs in all cells of our body and consists of the attachment of a small protein, called ubiquitin, to other cellular proteins. This is a very selective tagging system that marks the targeted proteins as no longer needed, and induces their destruction. If a protein destruction event is not executed at the right time or the right place, this may contribute to cancer development. The goal of my research is to determine how the process of ubiquitination coordinates the function of BRCA1, a gene required for blocking breast cancer development. This gene is called a tumor suppressor, meaning that it is a break that prevents the cells from multiplying without control. We plan to use molecular and cellular biology tools to determine how ubiquitination coordinate the function of BRCA1. This will not only shed new light on our understanding of breast cancer development, but might also provide highly significant information for the treatment of breast cancer.