Investigating the role of deregulated minor intron splicing in cancer-related genes

Minor intron splicing in breast cancer was studied in two previous funded projects (NPRP and Seed). Data from these projects laid the foundation for the current proposal as they identified many genes whose altered minor intron splicing was shown to be very important to various cancer phenotypes. This project aims to build on that knowledge and investigate three such genes: PTEN (a tumor suppressor gene), PARP1 (a DNA damage repair gene) and MAPK14 (an oncogene). In addition, we aim to further investigate unexpected data that we previously obtained about minor intron splicing in general that challenged the current understanding about the mechanism by which these introns are regulated. By understanding the consequences of deregulated minor intron splicing in general as well as in three specific highly relevant cancer genes, we envision that we can start developing therapeutic approaches that have not been previously considered for breast cancer. Given that Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in Qatar, the outcomes from this project will put us on the right path to alleviate some of the economic, societal and health care burden of breast cancer in Qatar, the region and worldwide.