EMBO Member
Patrick Mehlen
EMBO 2006
Former EMBO Young Investigator (2001)
The dependence receptor notion
My group develops the dependence receptor paradigm. Such dependence receptor triggers cell death unless bound by its ligand, generating a cellular state of dependence on the presence of ligand. This feature constrains tumor progression and aggressive cancers may select to silence this death pathway to survive by upregulating the ligand. We have translated this with a first anti-ligand (netrin-1) antibody entering into phase I clinical trial.
Keywords
Dependence receptor / apoptosis / cancer / neuronal navigation / tumor suppressor gene