Regulatory Networks in Gene Expression: From the Genome to the Organism

The sequencing of the human genome, a task that required years of effort by the international scientific community, represents a major scientific achievement. Indeed, since the genome contains the information necessary for human growth and development, the sequencing of the human genome described the biological ingredients required for the making of a human being. One of the most important challenges of the post-genomic era is now to decipher how this genetic information is decoded and used in the process of gene expression. Now that the ingredients are known, we must determine the recipe. Through the use of transcription factors as tools to study gene regulatory networks, this project is aimed at determining how the protein machines of the cell decode the genetic information, elucidating the mechanisms by which gene expression is controlled during normal human growth and development and how deregulations in gene expression lead to the establishment of diseases such as cancer. This is a collaborative project involving four universities in Québec (Montréal, Laval, Sherbrooke and McGill), three hospitals (McGill University Health Centre, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke, Hotel-Dieu de Québec), and two research centers (Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal, Centre de Cancérologie de Québec).

Co-applicants: