Faculty Research in the News

Breast cancer indicator protein discovered, U. researchers say

COURTESY OF THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN, BY Loully Saney

University researchers have discovered a protein that controls tumors in breast cancer, a possible path toward the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. The lactation protein, known as Elf5, inhibits metastasis, the spread of the disease to other organs.

“The same protein that controls milk production also protects us from developing invasive breast cancer,” molecular biology professor Yibin Kang explained. Kang was a co-author of the study, which was conducted at labs at Princeton and the University of Buffalo and was featured as the cover paper in this month’s issue of Nature Cell Biology.

“We shot high and were very lucky to be published in the first journal we submitted to,” said Julie Hwang ’13, an undergraduate researcher at Kang’s lab and a co-author of the paper.

Kang and Hwang worked with the paper's lead author, Princeton associate research scholar Rumela Chakrabarti. Chakrabarti originally conducted research at UB with biochemistry professor Satrajit Sinha, who was another co-author on the paper. Chakrabarti left UB to take a position in Kang’s lab while researching together with Kang on the breast cancer study...

Read the full article at The Daily Princetonian

Photo Credit:  Rumela Chakrabarti