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                                    Therese Sørlie, PhD
                                    Department of Genetics
                                    The Norwegian Radium Hospital
                                    and Stanford University

                                                   
 

Research Summary
My research interests are in functional genomics and breast cancer. We are using DNA microarrays representing thousands of genes to study patterns of gene expression and copy number changes in breast cancer. Breast cancer is a very heterogeneous disease presenting a diverse range of biologically characteristics of the tumors as well as different responses to treatment and clinically outcomes for the patients. The DNA microarray technology allows us to study expression of many genes in concert and to explore complex interplays betewen genes that otherwise would be unrecognized by standard methods. By using this technology in combination with sophisticated statistical and mathematical tools, we have been able to identify specific patterns of gene expression that provided distinctive molecular portraits of each breast tumor studied. Different sets of co-expressed genes give us clues to specific pathways that may be activated in the tumor cells as well as the cellular composition of the tumors. Furthermore, we have been able to classify the tumors into distinct entities with characteristic gene expression profiles that are associated with different prognosis for the patients.

Main aims of this project are:
1) Subclassification of breast tumors into discrete entities that represent clinically relevant groups of patients
2) Identification of expression patterns that can be associated with a specific response to a specific treatment
3) Identification of smaller, unique sets of specific genes whose expression best identify subgroups of tumors and that can be used in a diagnostic setting by quantitative PCR
4) Using aCGH to identify new and recurrent loci for amplification and deletion

The work is funded by The Norwegian Cancer Society, The Norwegian Radium Hospital, The Norwegian Research Council and NIH grants CA77097 and CA85129.

Relevant Links
 Portal for Stanford Breast Cancer Consortium
 Stanford Microarray Database