Medical research

Gene variation promotes uncontrolled cell division

Mom's eyes and dad's tumor? Cancer is due to genetic defects, some of which can be hereditary. The gene variant rs351855, for example, occurs in one in two cancer patients. It supports the growth of a variety of tumors that ...

Oncology & Cancer

Mutations in key cancer protein suggest new route to treatments

For years, scientists have struggled to find a way to block a protein known to play an important role in many cancers. The protein, STAT3, acts as a transcription factor—it performs the crucial task of helping convert DNA ...

Oncology & Cancer

Biologists unravel drug-resistance mechanism in tumor cells

About half of all tumors are missing a gene called p53, which helps healthy cells prevent genetic mutations. Many of these tumors develop resistance to chemotherapy drugs that kill cells by damaging their DNA.

Medical research

Molecular 'kiss of death' flags pathogens

Many bugs that make us sick—bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites—hide out in our cells in protective little bubbles called vacuoles. To clear an infection, the immune system must recognize and destroy these vacuoles ...

Neuroscience

Mystery of Rett timing explained in MeCP2 binding

For decades, scientists and physicians have puzzled over the fact that infants with the postnatal neurodevelopmental disorder Rett syndrome show symptoms of the disorder from one to two years after birth.

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