SEMINAR: The many shades of BARD1 in development and disease

The Seminar: For over more than a decade the research on BARD1 was a side-product of the research on the breast cancer gene and protein BRCA1. Co-expression of both proteins in most tissues, their similar structure, the same phenotypes in knock-out mice, and the hetero-dimeric complex formation of BRCA1 and BARD1 supported the commonly accepted few of BARD1 as an accessory protein of BRCA1. Work from my team was initiated with the assumption that BRCA1 and BARD1 proteins and genes might have common and separate functions. In recent years we discovered that differentially spliced forms of BARD1 are heavily overexpressed in many cancers. It appears plausible that BARD1 isoforms of different domain composition may be involved in the same pathways as FL BARD1, yet play a different role or compete for normal BRCA1-BARD1 functions. In my talk I will give an overview of the current state of research on BARD1, and, as far as possible within this given frame, on BRCA1. I will highlight the work from my group and provide the experimental evidence for the tumor promoting roles of aberrant forms of BARD1 that are associated with various types of cancer.

The Speaker: Irmgard IRMINGER-FINGER studied biology and biochemistry in Zurich, where she graduated in molecular biology and biochemistry and obtained a PhD in molecular genetics. After a three year postdoctoral period at the Molecular Cell Biology Department at the Harvard University, she returned to Switzerland and first had a position as independent researcher at the Biochemistry Department of the University of Geneva. In 1997 she moved into oncology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Geneva, having obtained a Swiss federal career development award. In 1998 she started her own research group focusing on the molecular pathways at the aging and cancer interface as part of the Biology of Aging Institute at the same institution. Since 2006 she heads the Molecular Gynecology and Obstetrics Laboratory at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Geneva University Hospitals. The main interest of this laboratory is the function of tumor suppressor genes in normal and cancer cells and their implication in carcinogenesis and cancer progression, in particular the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BARD1. Over the years, Dr. Irmgard Irminger-Finger built up her reputation as expert in the Cancer and Aging field and as expert on the BRCA1 and BARD1 genes, as author of scientific articles, speaker at conferences, organizer of meetings, editorial board member, and member of specific study groups and Task Forces.