Watching the Hippo pathway in real time in growing organs

A new frontier in biomedical research will involve watching individual proteins work in real time, in living organs. Traditionally, researchers have drawn conclusions about gene function using indirect techniques that only allow us to infer what a gene normally does, without actually watching it work. For example, we create organisms that lack a particular gene and determine whether something goes wrong. If the loss of gene X causes organs to overgrow then we assume that gene X normally limits organ size. This has been an extraordinarily powerful approach for interrogating gene function but it cannot substitute the ability to watch gene products executing their function in real time, which allows determination of exactly when, where and how they work. In exciting new research, we will investigate the role Hippo tumour suppressor pathway in organ growth by watching, for the first time, its activity in growing organs, in real time. This will provide novel insights into normal organ growth and pathogenic organ growth in diseases such as cancer.