1. Steroid hormones regulate many physiological processes ranging from the control of carbohydrate metabolism, body homeostasis, sexual development and differentiation to mediation of stress response. They function by prior interaction with their corresponding receptors and subsequent alteration of gene expression. Alterations in expression of specific genes resulting from malfunction of steroid hormone receptors lead in many cases to various physiological disorders.

The first aim of my group is to study the molecular action of steroid receptors in normal and pathophysiological situation with a view of identifying the causes of several hormone-controlled physiological defects such as Benign Prostate Hyperplasia (BPH), Prostate cancer and Breast cancer.

2. Seldom do cancer patient die from the effects of their initial tumor. However, it is the metastatic spread of tumor cells that is ultimately responsible for the vast majority of cancer deaths. Understanding the molecular biology of invasion and metastasis and the genetic changes that drive these processes represents one of the last great frontiers of exploratory cancer research.

Search for novel therapies against metastatic cells and metastatic processes hold the promise of clearing the body of tumor cells and curing the patient. The second aim of our work is to screen and identify novel anti-metastatic agents from natural products which could be applied to the treatment of human metastatic cancers. Our focus in this research area is to identify new compounds from natural products with influence the process of Angiogenesis, a key metastatic process in cancer progression.