Berkeley Lab researchers have discovered a rotational motion that plays a critical role in the ability of breast cells to form the spherical structures in the mammary gland known as acini. This rotation, called “CAMo,” for coherent angular motion, is necessary for the cells to form spheres. Otherwise, cells undergo random motion, leading to loss of structure and malignancy.

Working with a special line of human breast cells, Berkeley Lab researchers have shown that for low dose levels of ionizing radiation, cancer risks may not be directly proportional to dose. This contradicts the standard model for predicting biological damage from ionizing radiation, which holds that risk is directly proportional to dose at all levels of irradiation.

Berkeley Lab researchers have shown that normal breast cells help defend against cancer by producing the protein interleukin 25 to actively and specifically kill breast cancer cells. This important new finding points the way to a new therapeutic target for breast cancer treatment.

A Berkeley Lab study has shown how communities of different types of breast cells self-organize into breast tissue. This helps explain how the processes of stem cell differentiation and tissue architecture maintenance are coordinated, and might lead to a better understanding of what goes wrong in cancer.

Berkeley Lab researchers led by cancer authority Mina Bissell have shown how the protein laminin, long thought to provide only structural support in the microenvironment of breast and other epithelial tissue, can play a leading role in the development of cancer.

A new study on human breast cells shows that even when radiation exposure does no direct genetic damage, it can alter the environment surrounding the cells so that future cells are more likely to become cancerous. This is further evidence for the treatment of cancer as a “systems biology” disease.

Two Berkeley Lab researchers, Mina Bissell, Distinguished Scientist and acclaimed breast cancer researcher, and Alexis Bell, chemical engineer and leading authority on catalysis, have been elected to National Academy of Sciences class of 2010. Their election brings the total number of Berkeley Lab NAS members to 63.

Berkeley Lab has been selected by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to host a new Center for Cancer Systems Biology (CCSB). Researchers at this new center will help develop computational models that predict breast cancer responses to therapeutic agents.

Over the past two decades, the pioneering research of Mina Bissell at Berkeley Lab has broadened the conversation about breast cancer beyond genetics to include the microenvironment and other factors. This expanded focus has had profound implications for breast cancer awareness and therapies.

An $18 million, three-year grant to develop new and more effective therapies to fight breast cancer was awarded May 27 to a multi-institutional “Dream Team” of scientists and clinicians that is co-led by Joe Gray, director of Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division. The team will pursue personalized treatment that targets individual cancers with tailored therapies.