That money, in turn, attracts other grants. Dixon's research interest illustrates the type of sophisticated work coming out of the initiative. He is an expert in enzymes, molecules that help speed the work of cells to do tasks like digestion. His lab is studying how a family of enzymes called kinases tells brain tumor cells to live, rather than die as they should. Several drug companies now are using the U-M work to find compounds that focus on getting kinases to act differently in a type of deadly brain tumor called glioblastoma.
Proteins take instructions from genes to do much of the work inside cells.
The field is a vital new frontier in the genetics revolution. Andrews' lab is trying to design a way of looking at proteins in three dimensions, like the way cancer doctors and physicists plot tumors to best determine how to reach them without destroying vital nearby tissue. They also are trying to develop instruments that accurately measure proteins. By fragmenting its parts, scientists can determine a protein's precise chemical makeup and analyze changes. We broke up things into their smallest pieces.