This interview is with Translational Oncongenomics Editor in Chief Dr Michael Spinella. Translational Oncongenomics is an open access journal published by Libertas Academica.

Editor in Chief Dr Michael Spinella has recently issued a call for papers

What is the primary focus of your research?

Identification of mechanistic links between stem cell pluripotency and cancer and identification of downstream genes and pathways signaling induced differentiation of human solid tumor cells, especially in response to retinoids; finding causative genes in those tumors that are cured with differentiation and cytotoxic therapy. A model system is stem cell-like human embryonal carcinoma which differentiates along a neuronal pathway associated with growth suppression in response to the retinoid all-trans-retinoic acid (RA). RA binds and activates the retinoic acid receptor family of transcription factors and in this way regulates the expression of critical target genes. The identity of these genes and the signaling cascades they initiate are largely unknown. Using both candidate gene and de novo screening approaches like microarray analysis, the goal of this research is to identify those target genes which are regulated by RA during! tumor cell differentiation and to identify those genes which mediate resistance to RA and DNA damaging agents.

What are the most exciting developments arising from current research in your area?

There is a growing realization that transcriptional and epigenetic based therapies may be able to treat and prevent cancer with less toxicity. Recently developed genomic approaches are beginning to uncover the genome-wide mechanisms associated with the anti-cancer responses of transcriptional and epigenetic drugs. This should lead to new and better therapies.

Who are your main collaborators? Please describe your work with them.

I have a long standing collaboration with Ethan Dmitrovsky who is a clinically trained physician-scientist with common interests in mechanisms of retinoid actions in cancer prevention and treatment. Another close collaborator is Sarah Freemantle. I have also collaborated with investigators with expertise in bioinformatics, Jason Moore and Craig Tomlinson and Jim DiRenzo who is interested in breast cancer stem cells and nuclear receptor signaling.

How did you come to be working in your research area?

I started out in graduate school doing peptide chemistry and designing peptide based drugs. I made a conscious effort to learn molecular biology as a postdoc, which lead to my interest in cancer therapy, first in the field of antifolates and then in retinoid signaling. Retinoid signaling is an rewarding field since retinoids have diverse and complex actions yet these actions are trackable in the sense that all actions start with activating retinoid receptors. Thus it is in theory possible to explain retinoid actions by defining the transcriptional networks first triggered by those genes directly activated by these receptors.

What do you think about the development of open access publishing? Have you published in an open access journal? What motivated you to do so?

I have published in open access journals and believe that all scientific publishing in the future will continue to evolve in this direction. Advantages are rapid turnaround time and greater transparency in the review process.

What articles and/or books have you published recently?

White KA, Yore MM, Deng, D, and Spinella MJ Limiting effects of RIP140 in estrogen signaling: potential mediation of anti-estrogenic effects of retinoic acid. J Biol Chem 280:7829-7835, 2005.

Kerley-Hamilton JS, Pike AM, Li N, Direnzo J, and Spinella MJ A dominant transcriptional response to cisplatin in testicular germ cell tumor-derived embryonal carcinoma. Oncogene 24:6090-6100, 2005.

Giuliano CJ, Kerley-Hamilton JS, Bee T, Freemantle SJ, Manickaratnam R, Dmitrovsky E, and Spinella MJ. Retinoic acid represses a cassette of candidate pluripotency chromosome 12p genes during induced loss of human embryonal carcinoma tumorigenicity. Biochim Biophys Acta 1731;48-56, 2005.

Kerley-Hamilton JS, Pike AM, Hutchinson JA, Freemantle SJ, Spinella MJ The direct p53 target gene, FLJ11259/DRAM, is a member of a novel family of transmembrane proteins. Biochim Biophys Acta 1769:209-219, 2007

Heim, KC, White KA, Deng D, Tomlinson CR, Moore JH, Freemantle SJ, Spinella. M. J. Selective repression of retinoic acid target genes by RIP140 during induced tumor cell differentiation of pluripotent human embryonal carcinoma cells Mol Cancer 19, 57, 2007.

Giuliano, C.J., Freemantle, S.J., and Spinella, M.J. Testicular germ cell tumors: a paradigm for the successful treatment of solid tumor stem cells. Curr. Cancer Therapy Reviews 2:255-270, 2006.

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