AREA B
The genetic make-up of liver cancer is meanwhile well established and extensive epigenetic and expression analyses have led to the definition of the altered intracellular signaling pathways; now is the time to develop an integrated view on the different established alterations, their interaction and regulation. Therefore, the following tasks are addressed by this research area: a) the identification and functional characterization of higher order, autonomous mechanisms of the tumor cell, such as cooperative tumor suppressor genes interaction, the relation between tumor cell metabolism and autophagy, the specific regulatory function of nuclear pore proteins, and the role of the governing Hippo pathway and b) the relevance of tumor cell plasticity and the cross-talk of liver cancer cells with its environment as decisive parameters of tumor differentiation, progression, and therapy resistance.