Biologjia Online

Medical scientists have always sought to uncover fundamental mechanistic explanations for human disease and to use this information to predict patient outcome and devise specific therapeutics. Although monogenetic diseases have been elucidated, the more common disorders often have complex or heterogeneous origins and involve the failure of multiple systems before disease is manifested. Breast cancer is an example. Many factors and genes have been implicated in the initiation of the disease (e.g., BRCA1, PTEN, P53, hormone exposure, irradiation, free radicals, etc.), but mortality is due to metastatic disease that requires invasion, evasion of immune surveillance, implantation in ectopic sites, continuous replication, cell migration, and angiogenesis (1). Capturing all of the genetic components that support these cellular processes has been a challenge for cancer cell biology.