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Angabin Matin, Ph.D

Present Title & Affiliation

N/A

Research Interests

  • Germ cell tumors
  • Biology of germ cells
  • Genetic dissection of disease susceptibility
  • Mouse models

My laboratory studies the genetics of testicular germ cell tumor development in mice. Testicular germ cell tumors originate from primordial germ cells and develop within the testis during fetal development. These tumors resemble aspects of testicular cancer in humans.

Testicular germ cell tumors occur spontaneously at an appreciable frequency only in the 129 family of inbred strains of laboratory mice, suggesting strong genetic control. Germ cell tumors in the 129 mouse model were the first tumor models where the tumor cell of origin and the time of transformation were precisely defined. This makes them a very useful model system to study the biology and genetics of testicular tumor development.

Evidence indicates that a large number of genes are responsible for germ cell tumor susceptibility. My laboratory is pursuing several approaches to identify the genes involved in tumor development. We are using chromosome substitution strains (CSS) and congenic strains derived from CSS to map and identify germ cell tumor loci on mouse chromosome 19. Another approach in the lab is based on analyzing single gene mutations in mice that affect germ cell biology and tumor susceptibility. Using positional cloning approaches, we identified a gene called deadend whose inactivation increases incidence of testicular germ cell tumors. Sequence analysis of dead end encoded protein indicates it is homologous to factors involved in gene editing. Work in my laboratory is geared towards unraveling the function of dead end in primordial germ cells and in testicular cancer. Identification of the genes involved in testicular tumor development and study of their function provides us with fascinating leads both into primordial germ cell biology as well as in tumor development.

Office Address

Phone: 713-834-6335
Email: amatin@mdanderson.org

Education & Training

Degree-Granting Education

1993 University of Texas, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, PHD, Cancer Biology

Experience/Service

Academic Appointments

Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 9/2008-present

Selected Publications

Peer-Reviewed Original Research Articles
1. Bhattacharya C, Aggarwal S, Kumar M, Ali A, Matin A. Mouse Dead-end (DND1) interacts with apolipoprotein B editing complex 3 (APOBEC3). PLoS ONE 355(5):e2315, 2008.
2. Zhu R, Ji Y, Xiao L, Matin A. Testicular germ cell tumor susceptibility genes from the consomic 129.MOLF-Chr19 mouse strain. Mamm Genome 18:584-595, 8/2007.
3. Hammond S, Zhu R, Youngren K, Lam, J, Anderson, P, Matin A. Chromosome X modulates incidence of testicular germ cell tumors in Ter mice. Mamm Genome 18:832-838, 2007.
4. Bhattacharya C, Aggarwal S, Zhu R, Kumar M, Zhao M, Meistrich ML, Matin A. The mouse dead-end gene isoform alpha is necessary for germ cell and embryonic viability. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 355:194-9, 2007. PMID: 17291453.
5. Youngren KK, Coveney D, Peng XN, Bhattacharya C, Schmidt LS, Nickerson ML, Lamb BT, Deng JM, Behringer RR, Capel B, Rubin EM, Nadeau JH, Matin A. The Ter mutation in the dead end gene causes germ cell loss and testicular germ cell tumours. Nature 435:360-364, 2005.
6. Youngren KK, Nadeau JH, Matin A. Testicular cancer susceptibility in the 129.MOLF-Chr19 mouse strain: additive effects, gene interactions and epigenetic modifications. Human Molecular Genetics 12:389-398, 2003.
7. Nadeau JH, Singer JB, Matin A, Lander ES. Analysing complex genetic traits with chromosome substitution strains. Nature Genetics 24:221-225, 2000.
8. Matin A, Collin GB, Asada Y, Varnum D, Nadeau JH. Susceptibility to testicular germ-cell tumours in a 129.MOLF-Chr 19 chromosome substitution strain. Nature Genetics 23:237-240, 1999.
9. Threadgill DW, Yee D, Matin A, Nadeau JH, Magnuson T. Genealogy of the 129 inbred strains: 129/SvJ is a contaminated inbred strain. Mammalian Genome 8:390-393, 1997.
10. Rozmahel R, Wilschanski M, Matin A, Plyte S, Oliver M, Auerbach W, Moore A, Forstner J, Durie P, Nadeau J, Bear C, Tsui LC. Modulation of disease severity in cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator deficient mice by a secondary genetic factor. Nature Genetics 12:280-287, 1996.

Invited Articles
1. Hammond S, Matin A. Genetic tools for germ cell studies. Genesis. manuscript in preparation, 2008.
2. Zhu, R., Bhattacharya, C. & Matin, A. The role of dead-end in germ cell tumor development. Annals of NY Acad. Sci. 1120:181-186, 2007.
3. Matin A, Nadeau JH. Search for testicular cancer gene hits dead-end. Cell Cycle 4:1136-1138, 9/2005.
4. Matin A, Nadeau JH. Sensitized polygenic trait analysis. Trends in Genetics 17:727-731, 12/2001.
5. Matin A, Collin GB, Varnum DS, Nadeau JH. Testicular teratocarcinogenesis in mice - a review. APMIS 106:174-182, 1998.

Last updated: 9/10/2009