Dr. Martin [Marion Abbe Fellow] focuses on genomic instability, a hallmark of virtually all cancers that underlies the mutations and aneuploidy (incorrect chromosome number) changes that perturb oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes (TSGs). Patient tumor sequencing has unveiled common genomic alterations across different cancers. Recent work described how the cancer genome is shaped by the loss of many genes and gene clusters. Despite the high frequency of TSG mutations and recurrent multi-gene focal deletions in cancer, the relative contribution of TSGs and focal deletions to tumor growth has not yet been compared. The goal of this project is to precisely recreate these genomic alterations and directly test how each contributes to oncogenesis.