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.

HIV & AIDS

Research captures transient details of HIV genome packaging

Once HIV-1 has hijacked a host cell to make copies of its own RNA genome and viral proteins, it must assemble these components into new virus particles. The orchestration of this intricate assembly process falls to a viral ...

Oncology & Cancer

Proteins drive cancer cells to change states

A new study from MIT implicates a family of RNA-binding proteins in the regulation of cancer, particularly in a subtype of breast cancer. These proteins, known as Musashi proteins, can force cells into a state associated ...

Oncology & Cancer

A noncoding RNA promotes pediatric bone cancer

Ewing sarcoma is a cancer of bone or its surrounding soft tissue that primarily affects children and young adults. A hallmark of Ewing sarcoma is a translocation event that results in the fusion of an RNA binding protein, ...

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