Basic Science Research

Dario Altieri, MD

Dr Altieri is Chair of Cancer Biology, and a world-famous investigator in the interface between cell survival and cell proliferation in cancer. In particular, his laboratory studies a gene family called Inhibitors of Apoptosis (IAP). At least one of the mammalian members of the IAP gene family, survivin, retains the ability to participate in both functions, and has been shown by his laboratory and unanimously independently confirmed in the literature to be over-expressed in virtually every human cancer.  The laboratory is divided in working groups addressing the various aspects of the interface between cell proliferation and cell survival, as well as the translation of these results into pathophysiologically relevant approaches for cancer treatment and therapy.

Recent work includes:

Ghosh JC, Dohi T, Kang BH, Altieri DC. (2007) “Hsp60 regulation of tumor cell apoptosis.” J Biol Chem. In Press

Altieri DC. “Survivin, cancer networks and pathway-directed drug discovery.” Nature Reviews. Cancer. 8(1):61-70, 2008 Jan.

Kang BH, Plescia J, Dohi T, Rosa J, Doxsey SJ, Altieri DC. “Regulation of tumor cell mitochondrial homeostasis by an organelle-specific Hsp90 chaperone network.” Cell. 131(2):257-70, 2007 Oct 19.

Dohi T, Xia F, Altieri DC. “Compartmentalized phosphorylation of IAP by protein kinase A regulates cytoprotection.” Molecular Cell. 27(1):17-28, 2007 Jul 6.

Vaira V, Lee CW, Goel HL, Bosari S, Languino LR, Altieri DC. “Regulation of survivin expression by IGF-1/mTOR signaling.” Oncogene.  26(19):2678-84, 2007 Apr 26.

Ghosh JC, Dohi T, Raskett CM, Kowalik TF, Altieri DC. “Activated checkpoint kinase 2 provides a survival signal for tumor cells.” Cancer Research. 66(24):11576-9, 2006 Dec 15.

Altieri DC. “The case for survivin as a regulator of microtubule dynamics and cell-death decisions.” Current Opinion in Cell Biology.  18(6):609-15, 2006 Dec.

Kang BH, Altieri DC. “Regulation of survivin stability by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor-interacting protein.” Journal of Biological Chemistry. 281(34):24721-7, 2006 Aug 25.

Gyurkocza B, Plescia J, Raskett CM, Garlick DS, Lowry PA, Carter BZ, Andreeff M, Meli M, Colombo G, Altieri DC. “Antileukemic activity of shepherdin and molecular diversity of hsp90 inhibitors.” Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 98(15):1068-77, 2006 Aug 2.

Dohi T, Salz W, Costa M, Ariyan C, Basadonna GP, Altieri DC. “Inhibition of apoptosis by survivin improves transplantation of pancreatic islets for treatment of diabetes in mice.” EMBO Reports. 7(4):438-43, 2006 Apr.

Xia F, Altieri DC. “Mitosis-independent survivin gene expression in vivo and regulation by p53.” Cancer Research. 66(7):3392-5, 2006 Apr 1.