Research
Research group:
Tumour Biology
Research interests:
The mammary glands are unique in the way that they are not mature at birth but not until puberty or even not until after a full term pregnancy. This means that genes that in other organs in the body only are embryonic expressed can be studied after birth in the mammary gland. The knowledge about the so-called stem cells in the breast is limited and the processes that transform these cells into tumour cells are not fully understood. Our research is focused on the different types of cancer that appear in the breast, although carcinomas that originate from the epithelial cells dominate, sarcomas and mixed tumours also appear and the origin of the latter types are unknown. The aim of our research is to understand how the different types of breast cancer are formed and the end is to prevent their genesis.
Projects:
We are studying the molecular mechanisms for tumorigenesis in own established canine mammary tumour cell lines of different phenotypes, complex adenoma, carcinoma, spindle cell tumour, osteosarcoma and carcinosarcoma as well as in primary tumours. The focus is on why and how the different phenotypes are formed
Group members:
Eva Hellmén, DVM, Professor, Dipl. ECVP.
Contact information:
Mail: Eva.Hellmen@slu.se
Phone: +46 18 672128
Tools and techniques
Tools/techniques:
In house we do post-mortem examinations including histopathology; cell culture techniques; immunocytochemistry on cells and immunohistochemistry on frozen- and paraffin sections; Western blot analyses. In collaboration we do flow cytometric cell sorting, gene expression and tissue arrays.
Responsible/contact person:
Eva Hellmén
