University of California, San Francisco
Targeted and global proteomic strategies for early breast cancer detection
Team Leader: Susan Fisher, Ph.D.
Overall Project Goal:
The overall goal includes the analysis of plasma from breast cancer patients for identification of aberrations in protein splicing and post-translational modifications (glycosylation, phosphorylation, proteolysis and oxidative damage) to profile the cancer proteome and peptidome.
Laboratory Studies:
In addition to performing inter-laboratory studies within the CPTAC teams, this laboratory also utilizes unique approaches to study cancer-specific aberrations. Highlights of these studies include:
- Evaluate reproducibility and dynamic range of measurable proteins, and the accuracy of molecular mass determinations, sample throughput, specificity, and identification.
- Identification of cancer-specific splice variants and post-translational modifications
Specifically, the Bay Area laboratories will evaluate the performance of proteomic technology platforms and standardize approaches to developing applications using these platforms. These will include depletion/enrichment approaches and chromatographic separations targeting the breast cancer spliceome, phosphoproteome and glycoproteome. The mass spectrometry data will be validated through Reverse Phase Protein Array and other antibody-based technologies. Additionally, the proteomic platforms will evaluate the ability to analyze cancer relevant proteomic changes in human clinical samples. Data from breast cancer patient samples (n=200) will be compared with plasma of woman with benign disease including rheumatoid arthritis, which will simulate data for chronic inflammatory conditions. The laboratory will develop and implement uniform algorithms for sharing proteomic data, bioinformatics and analytical/data mining tools to be shared with the scientific community.
Team Expertise:
Team Leader:
Susan J. Fisher, Ph.D.
Professor of Cell and Tissue Biology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Anatomy, and Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences
Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Faculty Director, Biomolecular Resource Center Mass Spectrometry Facility, UCSF
Member, Biomedical Sciences Program (BMS), UCSF
Member, University of California, San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center
Susan Fisher, Ph.D., is currently a Professor of Cell and Tissue Biology and the Faculty Director for the Biomolecular Resource Center Mass Spectrometry Center. Her research is focused on many aspects of reproductive biology as well as the biomedical applications of mass spectrometry. She has received numerous honors throughout her career, including an achievement award from the Society for Women's Health. Fisher received her Bachelor degree from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and her Ph.D. degree from the University of Kentucky, where she also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in mass spectrometry.
Proteomic Technology Specialists
Susan Fisher*, Brad Gibson*, Steven Hall*, H. Ewa Witkowska*, Birgit Schilling and Daojing Wang
Clinical Cancer Researchers
Gordon Mills,* Laura Esserman,* and Michael Alvarado
Bioinformaticians
Richard Niles* and Ron Beavis*
Biostatisticians
Dan Moore*, Alan Hubbard* and Ron Beavis*
Biologists
Joseph Gray*, Frank McCormick*, Christopher Benz, Anna Lapuk, John Conboy, Paul Spellman* and Bryon Hann
* Denotes a member of the Internal Advisory Committee
Participating Institutions:
University of California, San Francisco
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Buck Institute for Age Research
California Pacific Medical Center
MD Anderson Cancer Center
University of British Columbia
Other Essential Personnel:
Jonas Almeida, Katherine Hale, Carolyn Bertozzi, Alma Burlingame, Charles Craik, Lindsey Criswell, Carlito Lebrilla, Anna Lapuk, Yiling Lu, John Tainer, Boris Peterlin, Thea Tlsty, Mark Vanderlaan, Zena Werb, Natalie Wright, Joy Corwin, Alfred Au and Patricia Katz
About the University of California, San Francisco:
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to biomedical research, graduate education in life sciences and health professions and patient care. The university foundation was laid when leaders combined several colleges including the colleges of pharmacy and dentistry on land donated by Mayor Adolph Sutro near Golden Gate Park. In 1907, the campus built its own hospital and a clinic that would eventually serve people all over the world. Today, UCSF, including its medical centers (Parnassus and Mount Zion) and affiliated hospitals see more than one million patients a year. The opening, in 2003, of the 43-acre Mission Bay campus, the largest biomedical university expansion in the country, doubled UCSF research space and has increased the pace of biomedical discovery.
