Event Date: 22 Jun 2015 08:00 AM - 22 Jun 2015 09:00 AM

Event Venue: Enterprise Wing, Level 5, Perseverance Rooms 1/2

SMART-BioSyM Seminar

Role of JAG1-extracellular vesicles on angiogenesis

By Mr Evan Tan

Seminar Abstract
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are novel mediators of cellular signaling. They are able to ferry growth factors, receptors, nucleic acids and lipid mediators.  Studies involving tumor-derived EVs have shown that they have been able to promote tumor progression. They are able to promote angiogenesis, tumor proliferation and metastasis. Jagged1(JAG1), a key notch ligand involved in angiogenesis, has been shown to be up-regulated in several metastatic cancers. In breast cancers, tumor-derived JAG1 promotes bone metastasis. High levels of JAG1 and Notch1 co-expression in breast cancer patients is associated with poorer overall survival. In prostate cancer, down-regulation of Notch1 and JAG1 resulted in an inhibition of cell growth, migration and invasion while promoting cell death. Hence, tumor-derived JAG1-EVs could potentially be a novel mediator of tumor progression by regulating angiogenesis.

Speaker’s Biography
Mr. Evan Tan is a SMA3 PhD student supervised by Assoc Prof GE Ruowen (NUS) and Prof Harry ASADA (MIT).