Rahel de Bruyn from the Kaulich group is one of the winners of this years’ poster prize at the 8th Mildred Scheel Cancer Conference (MSCC) in Bonn. She was awarded for her outstanding work on the tumor suppressor RB1 which controls cell cycle entry.

If a cell is not ready for DNA replication, RB1 halts further progression of the cell cycle in G1 phase. Thereby, it prevents the replication of damaged DNA which may lead to detrimental mutations and cancer development, as seen in retinoblastoma patients who carry a mutated RB1 gene.

Besides causing retinoblastoma, this gene has been implicated in the etiology of numerous other cancers.
The MSCC is organized by the German Cancer Aid (Deutsche Krebshilfe). This year the conference focused on novel therapeutic strategies, metastasis and cancer genetics. Three poster prizes of 1,000 € each were given to honor the most excellent work presented.