My laboratory studies a protein modification, arginine methylation, that can change and regulate the function of proteins. We have discovered that the molecules responsible for this modification, the PRMTs, are found at abnormally high levels in breast cancer. Hence, we wish to test if defects in the cellular pathways that PRMTs normally control or regulate are contributing to the developpment and progression of breast cancer.

Specifically, we have characterized the expression of 3 different PRMTs as new biomarkers for breast cancer. We have then focused our efforts on one of these PRMTs and found that it's major role in breast cancer cells is to help them grow uncontrollably and prevent them from activating mechanisms that would lead to their elimination by the body. Since this specific form of PRMT is almost exclusively found in cancer cells and not in normal breast cells, we now propose to assess if it may be used as a potential new target to selectively eliminate tumour cells (or at least stop their growth) without affecting the adjacent normal tissues.