Biomedical subjects

Christoph Lengauer

Publications and source records attributed to Christoph Lengauer.

40 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

New paradigms for cancer drug discovery.

Discovering drugs has never been an easy task. Traditionally, this task has exclusively been undertaken by large pharmaceutical companies that recovered their high research and development costs by selling expensive medications. Despite the huge amount of time and effort devoted towards drug discovery over the last decade, the successful therapy of cancer has been limited. There are signs that the approach of how to discover drugs might change, especially in the field of cancer. Recently, several academic institutions have started to develop their own drug discovery programs. By pointing out the critical elements of the cancer drug discovery process, we examine why it would not be a surprise if some future cancer drugs will come out of academic research institutions and complement the ones developed by big pharma.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Dynamics of genetic instability in sporadic and familial colorectal cancer.

Genetic instability is a defining feature of human cancer. In colorectal cancer, two specific types of genetic instabilities have been identified: microsatellite instability (MIN) leads to a 1000-fold increase in the rate of subtle DNA changes, whereas chromosomal instability (CIN) enhances the rate at which gross chromosomal changes occur during cell division. In this paper, we develop a mathematical model for the dynamics of colon cancer initiation. We outline the processes and rate constants that determine the fraction of colon cancers where MIN or CIN mutations precede the inactivation of the first tumor suppressor gene. For a wide range of parameter values, we find support for the radical hypothesis that genetic instability initiates colonic tumorigenesis. We compare sporadic and hereditary forms of colorectal cancer.

Adenomatous Polyposis Coli↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Exploring and exploiting instability.

Genetic instability was postulated to be essential for tumor development almost three decades ago, and yet its exact nature in and relationship with cancer continue to be ill-understood and hotly debated subjects. In this article, we review and discuss current knowledge and thinking about the existence, characteristics, reasons for and mechanisms of genetic instability in human cancers, as well as how its study can help us better understand and fight cancer. Particular emphasis is given to chromosomal instability, the most common and least understood of the types of genetic instability found in human tumors.

Aneuploidy↗

PubMedDate not supplied

New paradigms for cancer drug discovery.

This article was previously published in Cancer Biol Ther 2(4):452-455. Discovering drugs has never been an easy task. Traditionally, this task has exclusively been undertaken by large pharmaceutical companies that recovered their high RD costs by selling expensive medications. Despite the huge amount of time and effort devoted towards drug discovery over the last decade, the successful therapy of cancer has been limited. There are signs that the approach of how to discover drugs might change, especially in the field of cancer. Recently, several academic institutions have started to develop their own drug discovery programs. By pointing out the critical elements of the cancer drug discovery process, we examine why it would not be a surprise if some future cancer drugs will come out of academic research institutions and complement the ones developed by big pharma.

Animals↗