Tag Archives: proceedings

Protein that keeps people, skeletons organized

In a developing embryo, many bones form based on cartilage templates. The study found that to form these templates, Lkb1 protein controls the progression of immature, dividing cartilage cells into larger, mature and fully differentiated cartilage cells. Without Lkb1, the population of immature cartilage cells disproportionately increases, leading to skeletal tumors. …

New insights into DNA repair process may spur better cancer therapies

The insights, reported online the week of Sept. 30, 2013, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, build on earlier work by the research team and identify new prospects for developing cancer therapies. The researchers have focused on a complex series of events that cells routinely undertake to repair DNA damaged by sun exposure, smoking and even normal metabolism. If not correctly repaired, DNA breakages can result in cellular damage leading to cancer. …

What do rotten eggs and colon cancer have in common?

In a paper appearing online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the UTMB scientists describe cell-culture and mouse experiments demonstrating that colon cancer cells produce large amounts of hydrogen sulfide, and depend on the compound for survival and growth. "They love it and they need it," said UTMB professor Csaba Szabo, an author on the paper. "Colon cancer cells thrive on this stuff — our data show that they use it to make energy, to divide, to grow and to invade the host." The researchers connected the bulk of colon-cancer hydrogen sulfide production to a protein called CBS, which is produced at much higher levels in colon cancer cells than in non-cancerous tissue…