E-Mail A team of MedUni Vienna researchers led by Johannes A. Schmid at the Center for Physiology and Pharmacology, Institute of Vascular Biology and Thrombosis Research, has managed to identify a previously unknown molecular connection between an inflammatory signalling molecule and one of the main oncogenes. The study has been published in the leading journal " Molecular Cancer". Johannes A. Schmid's working group at the Center for Physiology and Pharmacology, Institute of Vascular Biology and Thrombosis Research, already has many years' experience in the molecular and cellular aspects of inflammatory processes and is investigating what role these processes play in the development of cancer, as well as cardiovascular diseases. Based on structural similarities between key inflammatory enzymes, the so-called I-kappa B kinases (IKKs), and c-Myc, a protein that is present in elevated quantities in many forms of cancer, the researchers suspected that there might be a direct interaction between these molecules. They could now confirm this interaction using a special microscopic technique.