BMC Seminar Thursday 13th of December at 12:00 in room 343 Læknagarður

Speaker: Dr. Kritika Kirty, Post doctoral fellow in Stefán Þ Sigurðsson lab at the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Health Science, University of Iceland.

Title: MITF - Not just skin deep

The transcription factor MITF is known to be the key regulator of melanin synthesis that induces pigmentation. However, the expression of MITF is not restricted to melanocytes and it might have roles other than melanogenesis.  Existing mass spectrometry data shows MITF interaction with DNA damage repair genes. We are therefore interested in exploring the potential role of this transcription factor in DNA damage, in both melanoma and non-melanoma cells.

RNA sequencing was performed in order to study the changes in global transcription levels induced after treatment with a DNA damaging compound, in the presence and absence of MITF. We have used the SKMEL28 melanoma and the U2OS osteosarcoma cell lines for our study. We are currently in the process of characterising the transcriptional profile of these two cell lines on MITF knockdown in context of DNA Damage and MITF isoforms.