The Breast Cancer 1000 Project at Harvard Medical School partnering the Harvard Institute of Proteomics (HIP) and the Brugge Lab has an ambitious goal: to study the function(s) of 1000 genes that may influence breast cancer development in order to map paths towards a cure. When Dr. Brugge wants to look at a new gene, HIP supplies this gene from its gene repository. Dr. Brugge then puts this gene into normal breast cells to see if it makes them act more like cancer cells. Already, Brugge’s lab has screened about 70 genes and found several that make the cells behave like cancer cells. (All the resources generated by this project will be publicly accessible to the biomedical research community. Since many of these genes may also be associated with other cancers, this gene set will benefit various cancer research efforts.) In this lab experience, you'll get the opportunity to experience both HIP and the Brugge lab. In the HIP lab, you'll interact with the robots that create the cloning process of genes for the repository, and in the Brugge lab, you'll culture healthy and cancer cells and examine their differences under microscopes. 
 

Related Links

• Harvard Cell Biology Department: Profile of Dr. Brugge
• Faculty of 1000: Joan Brugge
• Harvard Institute of Proteomics (HIP)
• 2002 Everett Mendelsohn Award Recipients

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