Tag Archives: cell

Research reveals cancer-suppressing protein ‘multitasks’

More than half of human cancers carry defects in the gene for p53, and almost all other cancers, with a normal p53 gene, carry other defects that somehow impair the function of the p53 protein. Inherited mutations in the p53 gene put people at a very high risk of developing a range of cancers. The p53 protein’s functions are normally stimulated by potentially cancer-causing events, such as DNA damage from ultraviolet radiation (a cause of skin cancer), or the over-activity of cancer-causing genes. Ms Liz Valente, Dr Ana Janic and Professor Andreas Strasser from the Molecular Genetics of Cancer division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have been dissecting the processes that are controlled by p53, to discover how this protein can suppress cancer development…

Dad’s genome more ready at fertilization than mom’s is — but hers catches up

In the earliest stages, embryo cells have the potential to develop into any type of cell, a state called totipotency. Later, this potency becomes restricted through a process called differentiation…

Activity of cancer inducing genes can be controlled by the cell’s skeleton

In the latest issue of the journal Oncogene, Florence Janody and her team at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC, Portugal), identified a novel mechanism by which the activity of Src is limited by the cell’s skeleton (cytoskeleton) limiting the development of tumours. Using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a model, Florence Janody and her team were able to stop the tumour development induced by the high activity of Src through the genetic manipulation of the cytoskeleton in fly tissues. A major component of the cytoskeleton, the actin protein, form cables that crisscross the cell, creating a network, where molecules can move, inside the cell. …

Possible treatment for serious blood cancer

"We tested the antibody in various ways, including on tumour cells from myeloma patients that have been transplanted into mice. …