Bass Hassan - Overview

We are interested in the biology of tumour growth control with the goal of developing molecular agents that disrupt these molecular mechanisms. Currently, we are concentrating on the role of Insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II), which a growth factor essential for normal embryonic growth and which is often over-expressed in human tumours. The bio-availability of this growth factor modifies cell proliferation and cell survival of tumour and stromal cells. A type I membrane receptor called the Insulin-like growth factor II/ Mannose 6-phosphate receptor (IGF2R) acts to sequester IGF-II for degradation. We are exploiting knowledge of the receptor structure to investigate function of IGF2R on the growth of embryonic and tumour tissue in model systems.