Oncogene collaboration revisited from a historical perspective

Abstract

In 1983, a seminal work from the lab of Robert Weinberg entitled “Tumorigenic conversion of embryo fibroblast requires two cooperating oncogenes” opened up a new dimension for cancer research. It discusses the mechanism of how one could convert a primary cell into a malignant one by introducing defined genetic elements (oncogenes RAS and myc), which cooperate to induce cancer. I will describe in this thesis that this model of oncogene collaboration had its roots in earlier work on how the viral oncogenes of DNA and RNA tumor viruses cooperate to induce cancer. Nevertheless, it was a landmark discovery that cellular oncogenes also act in synergy to cause malignant transformation.