Human Reproduction and Conception of Life or Termination of Life by Cancer - What are the Roles of Amnionless and Cubilin?

Each new life and human individual originates from cellular and biochemical processes taking place in their parents. Many processes have to succeed long before the actual fertilization situation before we can even begin to talk about a fetus and a growing person. At the end of a life, however, cancer can be the final destination and terminate the existence of a living human being. With this project, we aim to provide knowledge about the role of the two proteins, amnionless and cubilin, in the human reproduction process and in the proliferation of cancer cells. Amnionless and cubilin are at this point well-described with already known functions, such as their vital role during absorption of vitamin B12. This project therefore aims to investigate novel functions of amnionless and cubilin. The function of amnionless in brain and cubilin in breast tissue and placenta is at this point completely unknown, but their expression in these tissues may prove to be crucial. The outcome of th project will not only be of interest to researchers working with these two proteins and their specific functions but will also provide essential knowledge of importance to mankind in general. Hopefully it will contribute to the understanding of the human reproduction process and creation of life as well as the understanding of growth factor signaling and development of cancer.