Novel oncogenes in breast cancer

Our laboratory has a major interest in breast cancer, particularly the triple negative/basal breast cancer subtype, which is associated with poor prognosis and lacks targeted therapies. We have used a variety of approaches, including phosphoproteomic, kinomic and functional screens, to identify novel oncogenes in triple negative breast cancer, which include several poorly-characterized protein kinases as well as the pseudokinase SgK269/PEAK1. This project will use a variety of techniques, including si/shRNA knockdown, CrispR/Cas9 gene editing, use of small molecule drugs, cell signalling and biological assays, to characterize the functional roles of these novel oncogenes and evaluate them as potential therapeutic targets.