OCRFA Funded Research Identifies Mechanism Underlying Ovarian Cancer Development

(November 22, 2017) A recent paper published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation reports that a subset of ovarian cancers reduce the expression of a critical gene involved in recycling the cells’ proteins, known as ubiquitin B (UBB). Silencing the expression of a closely related gene, also in the ubiquitin family, that performs an identical function led to catastrophe for the cells, leading to cell death and prolonged survival of mice.

OCRFA grantee and one of the authors of the study, Michael Goldberg, PhD, explains that, “this research is important because it offers novel insights into a previously unknown mechanism underlying ovarian cancer development, and suggests that a new therapeutic strategy may be exploitable to treat patients whose tumors arose owing to this imbalance in protein recycling.”