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Cancers and congenital diseases share at least
one fundamental characteristic: the affected cells choose an abnormal fate or
“lifestyle” that disrupts their usual function. If we could understand how they choose
those fates and intervene, we might redirect their decisions to prevent or
reverse the diseased state. The
synthesis of novel proteins advances a cell progressively toward its final
state, be it neuron, muscle, gut (differentiation), or even a preprogrammed
death (apoptosis). My students and I
study the type of protein synthesis activity that leads to natural apoptosis-
one of the mechanisms that goes awry in breast, lung and many other cancers. Our research, funded for over five years by the National Science
Foundation, uses egg (oocyte) stem cells from a model animal
system, C. elegans, to study how protein synthesis is modulated to determine
the cell’s fate: natural cell death or continued oocyte growth. A certain percentage of these germ cells
naturally choose death to ensure the healthy development of the remaining
eggs. From an understanding of how oocytes
choose that fate, we are currently attempting to modulate protein synthesis
in human breast cancer cells in a similar, controlled fashion. These studies hold the promise of medically
selecting the natural cell death fate for tumor cells, and thereby developing
new cancer therapies that are free of unwanted toxic side effects. |
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East
Carolina University |
bd keiper 2/10 |
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