Matthew VanBrocklin, PhD - New Frontiers in Melanoma Research

Laboratory research on the genes that power cancer used to depend on cell cultures (think of those round, plastic Petri dishes from science class) or knockout mice (those with an inactive or "knocked out" gene that’s been replaced or disrupted with an artificial piece of DNA). But cells cultured on plastic don’t behave like cells in living organisms. Knockout mice take about a year to develop for each different gene mutation. And if you get negative results, it takes another year for the next try at a different gene. Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) have developed a unique mouse model that makes studying genetic factors in cancers within the living organism much quicker and more flexible. Read more about it in the 2013 Top Science Report: www.huntsmancancer.org/2013topscience.