Don Ayer, Ph.D., an HCI investigator, recently identified two new proteins in network malfunctions during the early stages of cancer development. The result is to turn on genes that stimulate cell growth. With new suspects in hand, Ayer's research group is investigating their contributions to tumor growth in different tissues. His findings were published in the December 1999 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and the December 2000 issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology. Two functionally distinct forms of the RSC nucleosome-remodeling complex, containing essential AT Hook, BAH, and bromodomains.
Cell growth requires that certain genes be turned on.
This happens because a complex group of proteins function as a tiny machine to identify the correct genes and prepare them to be turned on. In the November 1999 issue of Molecular Cell, Cairns describes how cells use RSC for specific packaging and unpackaging jobs by constructing the machine from different protein parts. Intracellular unesterified arachidonic acid signals apoptosis. In separate studies, Frank Fitzpatrick, Ph.D., and Steve Prescott, M.D., have clarified biochemical links between tissue inflammation, such as that in the colon, and the inactivation of the cell's safety mechanism. Their findings were reported in the August and October 2000 issues of the Proceedings of the National Adademy of Sciences, respectively.