Month: October 2011

In July, the Beatson International Cancer Conference took place at The Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow, UK. The Beatson Institute is a Cancer Research UK-funded centre which focuses on understanding cancer cell behaviour and developing new therapies and diagnostic tools. A wide variety of research is carried out at the institute, such as … Read more

HIF1α is a transcriptional regulator which plays an essential role in the cellular response to hypoxia. As discussed in last week’s blog, prolyl hydroxylases (PHDs) mark HIFα subunits for degradation, but HIF1α can also be regulated by reversible acetylation. Earlier work in a VHL-null human RCC cell line noted that histone deacetylases (HDACs), such as … Read more

Mutations in Fumarate Hydratase (FH) cause HLRCC, a kidney cancer syndrome related to BHD. FH is an enzyme involved in the TCA cycle and its deficiency results in the accumulation of fumarate within the cell. This accumulation leads to increased levels of HIF, via the inhibition of prolyl hydroxylases (PHDs), the enzymes that mark HIFα … Read more

As mentioned in our latest newsletter, several new interviews were filmed at the Third BHD Symposium, and have been posted to BHDSyndrome.org. Dr Derek Lim’s work at the University of Birmingham has been described previously, including his contribution to the Folliculin Mutation Database (Lim et al., 2010) and the UK BHD patient registry. The FLCN … Read more