Sept. 30, 2012 (Hosted by Karuna Meda)
Breast cancer affects one in eight women and is the seventh leading cause of death for women. Susceptibility to breast cancer is increased around the time of puberty when the breasts develop. More research into how the breasts normally develop and what causes normal cells to become cancer cells is still needed.
Our guest this month is Zena Werb, a professor of anatomy at the UCSF Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Werb’s lab studies how a normal cell develops and the role of the cell’s “neighborhood”, the surrounding tissue that is necessary for support and proper development. Looking at how these cells interact in their microenvironment is important for understanding cancer metastasis and may potentially lead to treatments for this disease.
More on the Werb Lab's research
