BIOL 3250 - Cancer Biology

Recently it has become clear that cancer is caused by a series of DNA mutations that either occurred in individual cells during our lives or were inherited by all our cells. The vulnerable genes encode molecules that control cellular growth and behavior. We will study the normal role of these genes, the changes that occur in cancer cells, and what this suggests for prevention and treatment. In addition to recent molecular research on cells, we will also examine the important clues about cancer that have from the study of tumor viruses and of the incidence rates of specific cancers in human populations.