Andrology Research Group - Honours in 2009

An Honours project undertaken in this lab would be administered by the Discipline of Physiology.

Prostate disease is very common in the ageing male. Prostate cancer is the second most frequent cause of cancer-related death and benign tumours affect approximately 50% of men over 60 years of age.

Prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia

Supervisor + contact details:

• Dr Stephen Assinder

Our research is focused on:

1. Understanding how the loss of structural proteins involved in organization of the cell cytoskeleton contribute to the development of prostate cancer phenotypes.

2. Hormone regulation of prostate cell proliferation. In particular we are interested in how oxytocin, a hormone usually associated with females, regulates enzymes that are essential to growth of the prostate and to determine if different cell signal pathways are involved.

3. The roles of Ca²⁺ activated K⁺ channels in the abnormal proliferation of prostate stromal cells. Several studies have described and Ca²⁺ - inactivated K⁺ channels in regulation of cell proliferation of prostatic epithelial cancer cell lines. There are scant reports of such channels in human prostate stromal cells (PrSC) and no knowledge of the estrogen regulation of these cells and effects on cell proliferation. This work is in collaboration with Dr Kirk Hamilton, University of Otago.

Projects are available in these areas of interest. They will employ many techniques including cell culture, proliferation assays, RT-PCR, real time PCR, siRNA knock downs, Western blot, Immunohistochemistry, thin layer chromatography and radioimmunoassay.