Mechanisms behind the oncogene ALK
in cell and mouse model systems

Group Leader:
Bengt Hallberg, Professor

Group Members:
Kristina Ruuth
Damini Chand, Ph.D. stud.
Ganesh Umapathy, Ph.D. stud.

Contact:
Bengt Hallberg

bengt.hallberg@gu.se
Phone: +46 31 7863815+46 31 7863815
Visiting Address: Medicinaregatan 9 a, 413 90 Göteborg
Postal Address: Box 440, 40530 Göteborg

Department med Biochemistry and Cellbiology
Box 440
40530 Göteborg
Visiting Address: Medicinaregatan 9 a, 40530 Göteborg
Fax: +46 31-41 61 08
Website: http://www.gu.se/english/about_the_university/staff/?languageId=100001&userId=xhalbe&departmentId=035360

Funding:
Swedish Cancer Society
The Children’s Cancer Foundation
The Swedish Research Council
Lions Cancer Society, Umeå, Sweden
JC Kempe Foundation, Örnsköldvik, Sweden

Description: Our laboratory is investigating the function and importance of ALK RTK’s and investigates differences in constitutively active ALK RTK mediate signalling at the molecular level as compared with wild type ALK in relevant cell models. This work is also carried out in mouse models which we have developed in with the aim of addressing ALK signalling in vivo.

Collaborators: Ruth Palmer and Suzanne Turner

Publications:
1. Martinsson, T., Eriksson. T., Abrahamsson, J., Careén, H., Hansson, M., Kogner, P., Kamraj, S., Schönherr, C., Weinmar, J., Ruuth, K., Palmer. R.H., and Hallberg, B. Appearance of the novel activating F1174S ALK mutation in neuroblastoma correlates with aggressive tumor progression and unresponsiveness to therapy.
Cancer Research, 2011 71;1, 98-105.
2. Schönherr. C., Ruuth. K., Yamazaki. Y., Eriksson. T., Christensen. J., Palmer R.H*., and Hallberg. B*. Activating ALK mutations found in neuroblastoma are inhibited by Crizotinib and TAE684.
Biochemical Journal, 2011, Aug 15,
3. Schönherr. C., Ruuth. K., Kamaraj. S., Combaret. V.,Wang, C-L., Yang, H-L., Djos, A., Martinsson, T., Christensen. J., Palmer R.H., and Hallberg. B. ALK regulates initiation of transcription of MYCN in neuroblastoma cells.
Oncogene, 2012 Jan 30. doi: 10.1038/onc.2012.12.
4. Berry, T., Luther W, Bhatnagar N, Jamin Y, Poon E, Sanda T, Pei D, Sharma B, Vetharoy WR, Hallsworth A, Ahmad Z, Barker K, Moreau L, Webber H, Wang W, Liu Q, Perez-Atayde A, Rodig S, Cheung NK, Raynaud F, Hallberg B, Robinson SP, Gray NS, Pearson AD, Eccles SA, Chesler L, George RE. The ALK(F1174L) Mutation Potentiates the Oncogenic Activity of MYCN in Neuroblastoma.
Cancer Cell. 2012 Jul 10;22(1):117-30.
5. Sattu, K, Hochgräfe, F, Wu, J, Umapathy, G, Schönherr, C, Ruuth, K., Chand, D., Witek, B., Fuchs, J., Li, T., Hugosson, F., Daly, R.J., Palmer, R.H., and Hallberg B. Phosphoproteomic analysis of ALK downstream signaling pathways identifies STAT3 as a functional target of activated ALK in neuroblastoma cells.
FEBS J. 2013 Jul 27. doi: 10.1111/febs.12453.

Weblinks: http://www.molbiol.umu.se/forskning/forskare/bengt-hallberg-/