It will give scientists new insights on exactly how the anti-cancer drug, Taxol, kills tumor cells. What it may do ultimately is aid researchers in developing more advanced cancer-fighting drugs. When an embryo is developing it has webbed feet and hands. But, by the time the baby is born those cells between the digits have died, separating the fingers and toes. Because eventually these cells die off by way of a process known as apoptosis.
Apoptosis also protects the body from cancer.
If a cell becomes transformed and starts uncontrolled growth, there are proteins within the cell that react to that transformation and trigger apoptosis, killing the cell to protect the body. But, what we discovered is that Taxol also attacks a second target in cancer cells. And it's a question whose answer may make it easier for researchers to develop more efficient anti-cancer drugs. However, first they had to find which other parts of a cell Taxol could bind to. To do this, the FSU researchers created a huge library of bacterial viruses genetically engineered to act like cellular proteins.