It is of principal importance to understand how different signalling pathways are changed in relation to different disorders. In this seminar, the JAK-STAT-SOCS signalling pathway will be discussed. This pathway is known to be of relevance for immune functions, metabolic control and cancer. In the seminar, the components of this pathway will be briefly reviewed as will the principles how the pathway is activated and inactivated. A particular emphasis will be made on STAT5 and SOCS2 - these factors seem to be important in growth regulation and in prostate cancer. The potential of using high through-put technologies and predictive methods to probe the JAK-STAT pathway will be exemplified.
