To explore the genetics of cancer, CSHL scientists are pursuing several novel approaches for detecting mutations in both primary and metastatic tumors and for creating mutations or gene silencing constructs that reveal a role for particular genes in tumorigenesis.

CSHL researchers are establishing comprehensive models for several aspects of epigenetic inheritance, including RNA interference and modification of DNA and histones. These efforts have begun to reveal the ways in which these processes work together to establish and maintain silent versus active chromatin.

An in-depth analysis of the process of gene expression at multiple levels (DNA, RNA, protein) using a variety of in vitro as well as in vivo approaches (biochemical, molecular, cell biological, and structural) is essential to completely understand the initiation and regulation of this central process as well as aberrations that occur in cancer cells.

An understanding of signal transduction, the process by which an extracellular stimulus is registered and converted into an intracellular response, is critical to an understanding of such fundamental processes as growth, proliferation and differentiation.

CSHL investigators have been at the forefront of developing and using genetic tools in cell culture and animal models to explore cancer biology. CSHL researchers have identified several molecular interactions and key regulators of apoptosis, cellular senescence and other complex pathways involved in cancer.

Computer scientists at CSHL are developing sophisticated databases and computational methods for analyzing the vast amount of data that is becoming available from comparative studies of a wide variety of genome sequences, DNA microarray research, and other functional genomics experiments.