Centre for Urological Research

Activin Beta-C

Activins are potent growth and differentiation factors.  Despite it being 10 years since the discovery of activin Beta-C its physiological role remains unclear.  We are addressing the roles of activin Beta-C by creating and characterizing Beta-C-activin over-expressing mice and comparing this to normal mice as well as mice lacking the Beta-C-activin gene. In addition recombinant proteins and novel activin Beta-C subunit assays are being developed to explore mechanism of action in relation to activin Beta-C.

Our overall hypothesis is that Beta-C-activin is a growth regulator, either independently or via dimerisation with other activin subunits, so may therefore be able to be targeted therapeutically in diseases of abnormal growth (prostate cancer is an example of particular relevance to our group).