He says that he enjoys the relaxed environment here at the U. D. and appreciates the Biology Department's openness to new ideas and change. Telomerase is an enzyme built of RNA and protein that controls telomere length. It aligns the template with an exposed DNA strand at the telomere and fills in the appropriate DNA bases. If telomerase is expressed, telomeres lengthen, if not, they shorten. When telomeres shortened to a critical length, cell division ceases.
Telomeres act as markers indicating the cell's lifetime.
When cell division is made faster by an enzyme known as telomerase, it causes mutations to occur within the cells and causes the cells to divide at a very fast rate. An example of rapidly dividing cells are tumor cells that are usually indications of the disease known as cancer. Tumor cells show high telomerase activity, which mutate the genes in cells and infects the somatic cells present in the organism. By studying this process in yeast cells, Dr. Stavenhagen hopes to find a way of shutting down telomerase activity so that rapid cell division may be stopped. However, according to Dr. Stavenhagen, new evidence has been found that indicate telomere mutations can occur without the aid of telomerase.