In 2023, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Adrian Krainer’s lab discovered how the protein SRSF1 jumpstarts PDAC tumor development. Now, after revisiting data from that study, a team led by former CSHL graduate student Alexander Kral has found that SRSF1 doesn’t act alone. Instead, the protein is one of three pillars in a key circuit promoting aggressive PDAC progression.

The study is published in the journal Molecular Cell.

“Our theory was that some of the changes caused by increased levels of SRSF1 were playing a role in the accelerated tumor growth we were seeing,” Kral explains. “We homed in on a molecule we thought could be an important driver of this called Aurora kinase A (AURKA). We found it’s part of a complex regulatory circuit that includes not only AURKA and SRSF1, but another key oncogene called MYC.”