Can oncogenes and their associated mutations affect asymmetric versus symmetric divisions in stem cells?
Specific Recommendations for the NCI Technical Recommendations: 1) Develop methods to encourage surgeons involved in clinical research to collect tumor specimens directly into trypsin disaggregation solutions and provide viable freezing of cells in large banks to allow scientists to isolate unselected populations of tumor stem cells. 2) Encourage the development of real time PCR technology to examine gene expression in tumor stem cells. This technique appears to give more valuable information than DNA microarray technology for analysis of stem cells. 3) Improve in vivo and in vitro functional assays for tumor stem cells to allow for more accurate identification of these cells in concert with cell surface phenotype identification. 4) Improve in vivo organotypic assays to understand symmetric versus asymmetric cell division. Administrative Recommendations: 1) Continue National Cancer Institute support for opportunistic basic research into tumor stem cell biology. 2) Develop a Research Co
