Tag Archives: computing

Computer simulation of blood vessel growth

"Better understanding of the processes that regulate the growth of blood vessels puts us in a position ultimately to develop new treatments for diseases related to blood vessel growth," and to better understand cancer metastasis, says bioengineering professor Jeff Weiss of the university’s Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute. Weiss and Lowell Edgar, a postdoctoral fellow in bioengineering, published their study Wednesday, Jan. 22, in the Public Library of Science’s online journal PLOS ONE. …

How DNA repair helps prevent cancer

Understanding how the human body recognizes damaged DNA and initiates repair fascinates Michael Feig, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Michigan State University. Feig studies the proteins MutS and MSH2-MSH6, which recognize defective DNA and initiate DNA repair. Natural DNA repair occurs when proteins like MutS (the primary protein responsible for recognizing a variety of DNA mismatches) scan the DNA, identify a defect, and recruit other enzymes to carry out the actual repair. "The key here is to understand how these defects are recognized," Feig explained. …