ESTABLISHING IN VIVO CRISPR/CAS9 SCREENING MODEL TO INVESTIGATE IMMUNOTHERAPY TARGETS IN BASAL-LIKE BREAST CANCER

JP. FEDEDA; A. CARRERA SILVA; M DE LA MATA; E. ERRASTI; A. GATTELLI; M. SIMIAN

Buenos Aires

Simposio; GSK TiS-Nature Symposium; 2019

GSK

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide (Global Health Estimates, WHO 2013). The main factors preventing improvements in mortality rates are: a) the lack of specific treatments for basal-like triple negative tumors due to the absence of therapeutic targets, b) tumor resistance to current endocrine therapies such as tamoxifen and c) lack of strategies to prevent the development of metastasis in secondary organs. The general objective of this application is to identify, through the use of an in vivo screening platform based on CRISPR/Cas9, coding genes involved in the development of primary tumors and metastases in difficult to treat breast cancer subtypes. Based on previous findings, our hypothesis is that genes involved in the evasion of the immune system may be key to the progression of breast cancer. Through the systematic measurement of the phenotypes generated by loss-of-function mutations induced by a CRISPR/Cas9 library, our main goal is: to determine which genes play relevant roles in modulating immune system responses, allowing tumor growth and metastasis in a basal model of breast cancer.