About
The Du Laboratory is one of fifteen research laboratories in the Ben May Department for Cancer Research at the University of Chicago. The laboratory is under the direction of principal investigator Wei Du, Ph.D.
We are interested to understand how cell proliferation is regulated, particularly how environmental and developmental signals are integrated and translated into a decision of cell cycle control. In mammalian cells, the decision to proliferate or to remain quiescent is made primarily during G1 phase of the cell cycle, and the inactivation of the Retinoblastoma (RB) family of proteins (pRB, p107, and p130) by phosphorylation at late G1 is believed to be a critical step for G1/S transition. The RB family of proteins regulate the transcription factor E2F. The inactivation of pRB function and the subsequent deregulation of E2F activity is thought to contribute to the uncontrolled proliferation of many tumor cells.