Most of my research is involved in the expression of BRCA1 protein and proteins that are know to regulate BRCA1 expression and/or its function. BRCA1 plays an important role in maintaining normal cellular functions such as DNA repair, transcriptional cofactor, cell cycle regulator, and chromosome stability. It is also known that BRCA1 message and protein is frequently down regulated in sporadic breast and ovarian carcinoma. Although progress has been made in defining the roles of BRCA1 in normal cellular mechanism many questions remain on the cellular events associated with reduced expression of BRCA1 protein sporadic breast and ovarian cancers. By using immunohistochemical analysis on sporadic breast and ovarian cancers, I am evaluating the expression of BRCA1 and other proteins associated with the functions of BRCA1 to understand the events associated with loss of expression of BRCA1.
