Saturday, March 17, 2007

Taking a Gander at Nanobiology

'Nanobiology Notes' is a blog with some posts worth looking at. The particluar link supplied sends you to a blog entry that contains the following paragraph of interest:

"MIT recently discovered that a protein called MEI-S332 regulates the chromosome cohesion, releasing the chromosomes from each other by adding a phosphate to the binding point. These findings are particularly significant given that researchers have found that levels of MEI-S332 are higher than normal in 90% of all breast cancers. According to Clarke, this might mean that when there’s too much of the protein, the chromosomes don’t separate properly, or it might mean that the MEI-S332 gene is mutated on the chromosomes."

Of course there is more to be learned about this finding but it suggests the possibility of a general cause and effect scenario. At times a mutation adversely affecting one protein will have a cascade effect that eventually results in cancer. In this particular case the culprit might be a regulatory protein that influences the expression of MEI-S332 but that is only a fleeting thought. Things like this resemble whodunnit stories on a molecular level.

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