FOUNDATION LEADERSHIP

President
Mahesh K. Shetty MD;FRCR;FACR;FAIUM
Clinical Professor
Baylor College of Medicine
Medical Director
Woman's Clinic for Breast
and Gynecological Imaging & Pink Door Imaging Center

Patron
Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Chairman & Managing Director
Biocon Limited
Bangalore, India

Board of Trustees
Ron Somers
President
US-India Business Council
Washington D.C.

Jennifer Garza
CEO Edinburg Regional Medical Center/Edinburg Children's Hospital
Edinburg, Texas

Mrs. Mona Parikh PHR, MBA
Sr. Human Resources Business
Partner

Mr Andrew Novarini
CEO, Cypress Station Branch
Bank of Houston

Kelli Cohen MD
General and Pediatric Radiologist

Eric S. Greisel J.D.
General Legal Counsel


PROGRAM ADVISOR

Loretta A. Hanser
Director of Imaging Services
Mammography, CHP Radiology
Harris County Hospital District

Regional Directors
Mrs. Trishna Dey [Asia]
Ms. Esther Biira [Africa]
Dr Adhmer Longatto [S.America]
------------------------------


MEDICAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

Chair
Mahesh Shetty MD;FRCR;FACR;FAIUM
Clinical Professor of Radiology
Baylor College of Medicine

Members
Dr. Steve Sener
Former President
American Cancer Society

R. Sankaranarayanan
Chief of Cancer Screening Group
International Agency for Research on Cancer,
WHO
Lyon, France

Saraswati Sukumar MD
Barbara B.Rubenstein Professor of Oncology
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Britt-Marie Ljung, MD
Professor of Clinical Pathology,
Director of Cytopathology
UCSF, California

Dr Usha Menon MD; FRCOG
Professor and Director
Gynecological Cancer Research Center
UCL Elizabeth Garrett Institute of Women's Health
University College London

Dr Edmundo Mauad
Director
Barretos Cancer Hospital,
Sao Paulo, Brazil

Peter Dempsey MD; FACR
Professor of Radiology
MD Anderson Cancer Center

Terri Pustilnik MD
Gynecology Oncology of Houston

Dr Diljeet K. Singh, MD, DrPH
Co Chair of MAC

Dr Wei Yang, M.B.B.S., F.R.C.R.
Professor
Deputy Chairman, Department of Diagnostic Radiology
The University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Co-Chair and Director of Clinical Research

Dr Neerja Bhatla MD, FICOG
A/Professor, Dept of Ob-Gyn, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India,
Vice President, AOGIN,
Inaugural President, AOGIN-India,
Organising Chairperson, AOGIN 2010

Dr Jill Donnelly
Consultant Breast Surgeon
Herford Hospital, UK

Dr Martin M. Matzuk M.D., Ph.D.
Stuart A. Wallace Chair
Professor of Pathology and Immunology

------------------------------

PUBLIC AWARENESS COUNCIL

Mrs. Susan Rafte
Chair of the PAC

Mrs. Sathya Saran
Co-chair,
Editor DNA,
Former Editor, Femina,
Mumbai, India

Ms. Lucy Noland
Co-chair,
News Anchor,
KNBC,
Los Angeles

Sharda Cherwoo
Partner
Ernst & Young

 
 


Sara Sukumar
Professor of Oncology and Pathology
 
 
     
  Contact Information
Room 410, Cancer Research Building
410-614-2479
410-614-4073 (Fax)
saras@jhmi.edu

Research Interests

Molecular Genetics of Breast Cancer

The goal of the laboratory is to identify gene alterations, to study the consequences of these changes to the cellular machinery, and to translate this knowledge to early detection and novel therapies for breast cancer. We have identified a large number of candidate oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes by SAGE and microarray analysis. Among these, we are currently analyzing tight junction proteins, Claudin-3, -4 and 7 and the homeotic genes, HOXA5 and HOXB7. HOXA5 is a potent transcriptional regulator of the progesterone receptor and the p53 gene, and its expression is lost in breast cancer cells. Few HOXA5 minus mice survive; the females have defects in lactation. HOXB7, on the other hand, is over expressed in breast cancer, and induces production of growth factors in cancer cells.

Future directions:

Study of mammary development and breast tumorigenesis in conditional knockout mice for HOXA5, and in transgenic mice overexpressing HOXB7.

Role of Claudin-7 in metastasis using imaging techniques, mammary development in transgenic mice and proteomic analysis of genes induced by Claudin-7 overexpression.

Selected Publications

  • Chen H, Chung S and Sukumar S. Hoxa5-induced apoptosis in breast     cancer cells is mediated by caspases 2 and 8. Molecular Cellular     Biology, 24: 924-935, 2004.

  • Mehrotra J, Ganpat MM, Kanaan Y, Fackler MJ, McVeigh M,
        Lahti- Domenici J, Polyak, K, Argani P, Naab, T, Garrett E, Parmigiani     G, Broome C and Sukumar S. ER/PR-negative breast cancers of     young African American women have a higher frequency of methylation     of multiple genes than those of Caucasian women. Clin Cancer Res.     10:2052-2057, 2004.

  • Zhu T, and Sukumar S. Coupling the transcriptional regulatory action of     brn-3b to the cell cycle clock. Cancer Biol and Therapy, 3: 324-325,         2004.

  • Kominsky SL, Vali M, Korz M, Gabig TG, Garrett E, Argani P, and     Sukumar S. Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin elicits rapid and     specific cytolysis of breast carcinoma cells mediated through tight     junction proteins Claudin 3 and 4. Amer J Pathol, 164:1627-1633,     2004.


  • Mehrotra J, Vali M, McVeigh M, Kominsky SL, Fackler MJ,
        Lahti- Domenici J, Polyak K, Sacchi N, Argani P, and Sukumar S.     Very high frequency of hypermethylated genes in breast cancer     metastasis to the bone, brain, and lung. Clin Cancer Res. 10:
        3104- 3109, 2004.

  • Fackler MJ, McVeigh M, Mehrotra J, Blum MA, Lange J, Lapides A,     Garrett E, Argani P, and Sukumar S. Quantitative multiplex     methylation specific PCR assay for the detection of promoter     hypermethylation in multiple genes in breast cancer. Cancer Res.     64:4442-4452, 2004.


  • Parker BS, Argani P, Cook BP, Han L, Chatrand SD, Zhang M, Saha     S, Bardelli A, Yiang Y, St. Martin TB, Nacht M, Teicher B, Klinger     KW, Sukumar S, and Madden S. Alterations in vascular gene     expression in invasive breast carcinoma. Cancer Res.64: 7857-7866     2004.


  • Fackler, MJ, McVeigh M, Evron E, Garrett E, Mehrotra J, Polyak,     Sukumar S, Argani P. DNA methylation of RASSF1A, HIN-1,
        RAR- beta, Cyclin D2 and Twist in in situ and invasive lobular breast     carcinoma. Int. Journal of Cancer 107, 970-975, 2003.


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