FLI Colloquium with Georg Halder: One upon a time there was the perfect anti-cancer target YAP…

The Hippo signaling pathway is known to play an important role in cancer development. This growth control pathway regulates gene expression via its downstream effectors, the transcriptional coactivators YAP and TAZ and their partner TEAD transcription factors. Due to the frequent hyperactivation of YAP and TAZ in many different human cancers, these homologous proteins are considered promising targets for cancer treatment.

Indeed, numerous efforts are currently underway to develop inhibitors that block their transcriptional output. However, genetic experiments in flies and mice suggest that the Hippo pathway may not be as central to growth control as originally thought.

Halder's research group has studied the role of the Hippo pathway at different stages (during cancer development, regeneration, and growth) and tested novel Hippo pathway inhibitors in mouse cancer models. Georg Halder will give an overview of the surprising results of these studies.

Georg Halder is Professor at KU Leuven in the Department of Oncology and Head of the Laboratory of Growth Control and Cancer at the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology. His group's current research projects aim to understand the extracellular signals that regulate Hippo signaling, how Hippo signaling and other signaling pathways are normally involved in growth control and regeneration, and how misregulation of the Hippo pathway leads to cancer.

The colloquium will be a hybrid event. Details for accessing the session will be provided before the colloquium takes place. For external guests: Please contact Ivonne.Roeppnack-Jahnke@leibniz-fli.de for details.