Angelika Amon (MIT and HHMI) Part 2: Effects of Aneuploidy on Cell Physiology

https://www.ibiology.org/cell-biology...

Overview
Amon begins her talk by explaining what aneuploidy is and how it arises. She explains that autosomal aneuploidy is usually devastating to an organism, while aneuploidy at a cellular level may result in the unrestricted growth seen in cancer.

In Part 2, Amon provides more details about the impact of aneuploidy on individual cells. Using budding yeast and mouse lines engineered to have specific aneuploidies, Amon's lab was able to show that aneuploid cells show gene specific effects, as well as a higher overall level of cellular stress.

Part 3 focuses on the role of aneuploidy in disease, specifically in cancer. Amon discusses how identifying enhancers and suppressors of the aneuploid condition can shed light on the effects of aneuploidy in cancer and can lead to the development of novel cancer therapeutics.

Biography
Angelika Amon received both her B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Vienna. She was a post-doctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute and was subsequently named a Whitehead Fellow. In 1999, she joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she is currently Professor of biology and Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor in cancer research at the Koch Institute. Amon is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Amon's lab uses budding yeast as a model to understand the regulatory mechanisms that ensure the correct segregation of chromosomes during mitosis and meiosis. Her lab also investigates what happens when correct segregation fails and aneuploid cells are formed. She studies these questions in budding yeast, mouse and humans.

Amon is a recipient of many honors and awards including the Alan T. Waterman Award of the NSF. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2010.

Related Articles

Primary papers:

Torres EM, Sokolsky T, Tucker CM, Chan LY, Boselli M, Dunham MJ, Amon A. Effects of aneuploidy on cellular physiology and cell division in haploid yeast. Science. 2007 Aug 17; 317(5840): 916-924.

Williams BR, Prabhu VR, Hunter KE, Glazier CM, Whittaker CA, Housman DE, Amon A. Aneuploidy affects proliferation and spontaneous immortalization in mammalian cells. Science. 2008 Oct 31; 322(5902): 703-709. PMCID: PMC2701511

Sheltzer JM, Blank HM, Pfau SJ, Tange Y, George BM, Humpton TJ, Brito IL, Hiraoka Y, Niwa O, Amon A. Aneuploidy drives genomic instability in yeast. Science. 2011 Aug 19; 333(6045): 1026-1030. PMCID: PMC Journal In Process

Torres EM, Dephoure N, Panneerselvam A, Tucker CM, Whittaker CA, Gygi SP, Dunham MJ, Amon A. Identification of Aneuploidy-Tolerating Mutations. Cell. 2010 Oct 1; 143(1): 71-83. Epub 2010 Sep 16. PMCID: PMC2993244

Tang YC, Williams BR, Siegel JJ, Amon A. Identification of aneuploidy-selective antiproliferation compounds. Cell. 2011 Feb 18; 144(4): 499-512. NIHMSID #: 276601
Oromendia AB, Dodgson SE, Amon A. (2012). Aneuploidy causes proteotoxic stress in yeast. Genes Dev. 15, 2696-708.
Reviews:
Siegel JJ, Amon A. (2012). New insights into the troubles of aneuploidy. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol. 28:189-214.