William Muller
Professor
- Breast cancer
- Genetic Engineered Mouse Models
- HER2
- oncogenes
- tumor progression
Research Interests: The molecular basis for the induction of human cancer remains largely obscure. Our laboratory has been interested in directly assessing the role of various molecules involved in inducing the proliferation of breast and prostate cancer cells in the context of living organism. As post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, we were one of the first investigators to engineer transgenic mice to develop mammary tumors. Upon establishing my laboratory at McMaster University we subsequently went on to demonstrate that an oncogene known as HER2 was directly responsible for inducing breast cancer. We have utilized transgenic mice that overexpress HER2 in the mammary epithelium to identify the key molecular events responsible for HER2 induced breast cancer. Given the importance of HER2 in sporadic human breast cancer, the results of these analyses will provide important insight into the design of therapeutic compounds that can interfere with tumor progression.
My recruitment to Ï㽶ÊÓƵ as a CRC chair of Molecular Oncology will greatly enhance my ability to pursue breast cancer research. Given the prevalence of breast cancer in human populations, our research program will provide important insight into molecular basis of these poorly understood human diseases.
D2R Funded Projects:
Principal Investigator:Â