Tag Archives: protein

Jun 5 2012

drug restores a cell’s cancer fighting ability

Remember the Fonz?  Awesome motorcycle, snazzy leather jacket, ladies man.  And the ability to fix any jukebox with a single smack of the fist.  What a knock-out punch.  Yes, pun intended.

If only there were a way to bottle the restorative power of Fonzie.  Well, scientists at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey may have discovered a way, figuratively speaking.  Recent work from the lab of Dr. Darren Carpizo, published in the May issue of Cancer Cell, describes the discovery of a drug that selectively kills cancer cells by restoring the function of the tumor suppressor, p53. Continue reading →

Apr 17 2012

fancy koosh ball equals targeted cancer drug

Remember the Koosh ball?  Who knows why they were so popular, but I’m still struck with a touch of nostalgia if I stumble across one today.  What if I told you that researchers were playing with similar toys in their labs?  Well, similar looking at least, but hopefully soon just as popular.

A huge team of biologists, physicians and engineers from labs across the country have developed a cancer-targeting drug that is the first of its kind to enter into human clinical trials.  The group reported the development of this drug and initial clinical data this month in Science Translational Medicine. Continue reading →

Mar 9 2012

maybe all we need in the fight against cancer is a little extra…

Dave Koechner in Waiting

If you’ve never seen the movie “Waiting,” you’ve done a true disservice to yourself.   You’re missing out on the inner workings of a crappy chain restaurant, a horribly hilarious coworker game, and, most importantly, I don’t know how you’ve made it until now without Dave Koechner’s sage advice, “Remember, the difference between ordinary and extraordinary…is that little extra.”

Seems like that little extra is just as important in other avenues in life, as evidenced by a paper published recently in Cell Metabolism by Dr. Manuel Serrano’s group.  His team in Madrid has discovered that mice with an extra copy of a cancer suppressing gene live longer, healthier lives with a lower cancer incidence.

Continue reading →

Jan 4 2012

new ‘living’ lights for all of your future holiday needs

Image taken from Phillip and Samayoa, et. al. 2011

In the spirit of the bright lights and big ideas of the new year, I thought I would share a pretty cool story of ingenious genetic engineering published a few weeks ago in Nature.

A team led by Arthur Prindle and Phillip Samayoa in the lab of Jeff Hasty at UC San Diego has created a network to make bacteria synchronously glow like so many twinkling Christmas lights. (Image shows a still photo of one of these chips.) Continue reading →