Cancer Genetics Group - Honours in 2009

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

Arachidonic acid pathway in prostate cancer

Supervisor + contact details:

• Associate Professor Qihan Dong
• Professor John Paul Seale

Prostate cancer is the second most commonly-diagnosed malignancy after skin cancer and second only to lung cancer in males in terms of cancer-related death in Australia. We have established that an aberrant activation of the arachidonic acid (AA) pathway occurs in human prostate cancer tissue.

This project aims to determine the relationship between AA and other key pathways (e.g. PI3K/Akt) in prostate cancer and therapeutic potential by targeting the AA pathway. Under the guidance of postdoctoral or PhD student, Honours students will learn the techniques of molecular biology (qRT-PCR and Western), biochemistry (AA release) and cell biology (cell culture and immunostaining) to investigator the role of the AA pathway in the growth of prostate cancer cells.