Project title: Investigating the role of ELK3 transcription factor in the migration of triple negative breast cancer cells, using genomic and microfluidic approaches
Acronym: GENOMICROELK
Project Type: Postdoctoral research project
Project ID: PN-III-P1-1.1-PD-2021-0525
Contract No: PD62/2022
Contracting unit: UEFISCDI
Total budget: 249.960 Lei (aprox. 51.200 €)
Project duration: 24 months (01/04/2022 - 31/03/2024)
Project summery
Metastasis is the main cause of breast cancer (BC)-related death, no therapies that target this process being available. Therefore, there is a need to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that govern metastasis in order to develop therapeutic strategies that are able to target the metastatic cells. The ELK3 transcription factor is a molecule whose expression we found to be correlated with the migration capacity of BC cells, and thus it might be a key regulator of cancer metastasis. In this context, the goal of this project is to evaluate the role of ELK3 in BC metastasis, by studying its involvement in cell migration, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and the cancer stem cell phenotype, and some of the underlying molecular mechanisms. BC cell lines in which ELK3 is either overexpressed (ELK3-OE) or knocked-down (ELK3-KD) will be generated by a lentiviral cell transduction procedure. The transformed cells will be evaluated in terms of their cell migration capacity in 3D microfluidic devices, EMT phenotype by flow-cytometry and stemness potential in mammosphere formation assays. On the other hand, in a functional genomic approach (microarray technology), the molecular effects triggered by both ELK3-OE and ELK3-KD will be assessed by identifying the gene expression patterns that are modulated in these transformed cells. The results regarding the cellular effects will be confronted with the molecular changes triggered by the overexpression/knockdown of ELK3, emphasizing the molecular mechanisms by which ELK3 might affect BC metastasis.
