Project: Microsatellites: potential roles in evolution and cancer

Champion: Cristi Galindo

Microsatellites are ubiquitous and up to four orders of magnitude more mutable than single nucleotide polymorphisms. Their global content, however, seems to track with generally accepted phylogenic relationships, as measured by a huristic neighbor-joining distance measure.

While the relationship betweenof microsatellites and cancer is already known, the extent to which these tandemly repeated sequences might contribute to heritable as well as environmentally-induced tumor development and progression is likely underappreciated. Using a custom array that analyzes all possible 1-mer to 6-mer microsatellites, we are finding that cancer types and subtypes can indeed be distinguished based on mcirosatellite content. We are further demonstrating that these specific cancer signatures can lead to the discovery of new cancer biomarkers.

Related Publications:

Microsatellite variations in genes correlate with features that distinguish humans and chimpanzees. Submitted