Sara A. Courtneidge
| Address: | Professor and co-Director, Tumor Microenvironment Program
The Burnham Institute for Medical Research 10901 N Torrey Pines Rd La Jolla, CA 92037 USA |
| Phone: | +1 858 646 3128 |
| Fax: | |
| Email: | courtneidge@burnham.org |
| Website: | www.burnham.org/default.asp... |
Research Interests
Dr. Courtneidge's laboratory has studied the Src family of protein tyrosine kinases for a number of years. Src was the first oncogene to be discovered, and the first protein tyrosine kinase, and dissecting the mechanisms of Src transformation, regulation, substrate selection and function has proved to be a powerful research paradigm to understand tumorigenesis. In addition, since Src is frequently up-regulated and hyperactivated in human cancers, particularly of the breast and colon, such research is of direct relevance to human disease. Current research in the laboratory focuses on three main areas. The first involves defining how Src and its substrate, Tks5, drive the formation of podosomes and invadopodia. Since these structures are found in metastatic human cancer cells, the second focus is to identify and validate molecular invadopodia targets, in order to define novel therapeutic points of intervention for the treatment of metastatic disease. The third research area involves defining in molecular detail the role of Src in mitogenic signaling pathways, particularly in breast cancer cells responding to estrogen.