Vascular Biology – Role of Phosphatases in Normal and Tumor Angiogenesis
(Group : Regulatory Networks of angiogenesis, Tumor Invasion and Metastasis)
This project is a collaboration between the Tremblay Laboratory (Goodman Cancer Center, Mc Gill University) and our laboratory. We initiated a first study on one known PTP contributor to angiogenesis, the protein PTP-PEST. Using a modified yeast substrate trapping two-hybrid system, the tremblay laboratory has identified 30 different interacting proteins to PTP-PEST. Among those we isolated a cytosolic adaptor protein named Src kinase-associated phosphoprotein 55 homologue (SKAP-Hom) as a novel substrate of PTP-PEST. Given the role of PTP-PEST, wound-healing and trans-well migration assays were performed using the generated lines. Indeed, SKAP-Hom-deficient MEFs showed a defect in migration compared with WT-rescued MEFs (Ayoub et al, 2013). We have now extented our analysis to other less well characterized phosphatases and shown that they play a critical role in vascular development.
Project members :
– Prof. Andreas Bikfalvi (Project Investigator)
– Mathilde Poulet
Collaborations :
– M. Tremblay, Goodman Cancer Center, University McGill.