Cellular signalling in health and disease

A well-regulated cell signalling is crucial for healthy and disease free conditions. PTEN, a lipid phosphatase maintains a homeostasis in cells by regulating growth signalling downstream of PI-3 Kinase. PTEN, a 403-amino acid long protein, was discovered as a tumor suppressor almost two decades ago. It is frequently mutated or lost in several human cancers and inherited mutations of PTEN are usually associated with developmental defects/delays and increased susceptibility for developing tumors. Even after two decades of its discovery, the signalling downstream of PTEN remains not completely understood. In this seminar, I will talk about my recent findings which mainly focus on attempts to decipher PTEN signalling to find new drug targets for cancer therapeutics and other PTEN associated disorders.