Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 18, 2026

Assessing Signaling Properties of Ectodermal Epithelia During Craniofacial Development
Published on: March 24, 2011
'The chicken or the egg?' dilemma strikes back for the controlling mechanism in chordoma(#)
Karoly Szuhai1, Pancras C W Hogendoorn
1Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Leiden University Medical Center, Einthovenweg 20, 2330 RC, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Chordoma is a rare malignant tumour of bone showing notochordal differentiation with characteristic expression of the transcription factor brachyury (T). Next to giving insight into its differentiation spectrum, the expression of T can be used as an adjunct diagnostic tool. The expression of brachyury in chordoma is necessary to maintain cell proliferation in chordoma cell lines, indicating that in chordoma it might be a master regulator of oncogenesis. Identification and mapping of the full gene regulatory network in a recent work in The Journal of Pathology by Nelson and colleagues not only shed light on involved pathways but also indicated pathways for targeted therapy, including brachyury itself.
Related Concept Videos
Determination
Chirality in Nature
Restarting Stalled Replication Forks
Cadherins in Tissue Organization
Cell Sorting During Development
Cell sorting plays an...
Combinatorial Gene Control
The expression of more than 30,000 genes is controlled by approximately 2000-3000 transcription factors. This is possible because a single transcription factor can recognize more than one regulatory sequence. The specificity in gene...
Bone Formation by Endochondral Ossification

