Key signalling nodes in mammary gland development and cancer. Signalling downstream of PI3 kinase in mammary epithelium: a play in 3 Akts

The protein serine/threonine kinase Akt, also known as protein kinase B (PKB), is arguably the most important signalling nexus in the cell. Akt integrates a plethora of extracellular signals to generate diverse outcomes, including proliferation, motility, growth, glucose homeostasis, survival, and cell death. The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway is the second most frequently mutated pathway in cancer, after p53, and mutations in components of this pathway are found in around 70% of breast cancers. Thus, understanding how Akt relays input signals to downstream effectors is critically important for the design of therapeutic strategies to combat breast cancer. In this review, we will discuss the various signals upstream of Akt that impact on its activity, how Akt integrates these signals and modulates the activity of downstream targets to control mammary gland development, and how mutations in components of the pathway result in breast cancer

A new mechanical characterization method for microactuators applied to shape memory films

We present a new technique for the mechanical characterization of microactuators and apply it to shape memory alloy (SMA) thin films. A test instrument was designed which utilizes a spring-loaded transducer to measure displacements with resolution of 1.5 mm and forces with resolution of 0.2 mN. Employing an out- of-plane loading method for SMA thin films, strain resolution of 30 me and stress resolution of 2.5 MPa were achieved. Four mm long, 2 {micro}m thick NiTiCu ligaments suspended across open windows were bulk micromachined for use in the out-of-plane stress and strain measurements. Static analysis showed that 63% of the applied strain was recovered while ligaments were subjected to tensile stresses of 870 MPa. This corresponds to 280 mm of actual displacement against a load of 52 mN. Fatigue analysis of the ligaments showed 33% degradation in recoverable strain (from 0.3% to 0.2%) with 2 {+-} 10{sup 4} cycles for an initial strain of 2.8%