Gene Therapy Ages Human Cancer Cells in Lab 318
mattr writes "Korean scientists are the first in the world to selectively age off and kill human cancer cells, by injecting a gene that suppresses telomerase, a cancer-specific enzyme that normally makes cancer cells immortal by protecting the telomere tips of their chromosomes. The telomere length modulation mechanism was found by two scientists from Yonsei University and colleagues at U. Central Florida, and is reported in the April 1 issue of Genes and Development magazine."
who gets credit (Score:1, Insightful)
Cool.. but some questions. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:who gets credit (Score:1, Insightful)
Put 6 graduate students in a room without a professor's guidance, watch and see how much work gets done in one hand, and shit it in the other... guess which one fills first, if at all.
The professor really is the person who knows what is going on, but they physically can't do the work because of all the administrative and teaching tasks... and not to mention, they have to go out and compete to get the money to fund the damn thing in first place. It's not like the money knocks on the door.
Re:I wonder... (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, but immortality is a feature of cancerous cells. That might be a Bad Idea.
Re:who gets credit (Score:4, Insightful)
so long as we remember and make sure to cite and post what we remember and write articles for wikipedia on what we remember then such things will not be forgotten or overlooked.
these days "they" are less and less often the media and the journals.
"They" is becomming "us", and I love it.
need more grant money (Score:2, Insightful)
Obvious question (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fertility is a big problem (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Fertility is a big problem (Score:5, Insightful)
If you were given the choice between being alive but infertile or being dead, which one would you choose?
fertiliy loss (Score:1, Insightful)
Also keep in mind that the vast majority of cancers strike later in life when, presumeably, you are less likely to want to have, or to be capable of having, children.
Re:Got a sweet tooth? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:who gets credit (Score:5, Insightful)
My guess is that the Korean scientists will keep their credit, just like the Koreans scientists who recently successfully generated stem cells from somatic adult tissues, just like the Dutchman who came up with the microscope, just like the Moravian monk who counted peas, just like the Swede Botanist retained credit for the Linnaean classification, just like the Russian Chemist retained credit for the periodic table, just like 10th century Arabs retained credit for much of Algebra, just like citizens of Greek city-states retain credit for beginning to formalize reason.
The capacity for human genius is universal, and in the reality based community known as science, we appreciate that. It belittles the intellects of foreign researchers and the hard work of American scientists to say otherwise.
Re:Koreans (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:who gets credit (Score:1, Insightful)
As far as the credit: first author a paper in Science and get a post-doc in every lab you apply to.
You've got it backwards (Score:4, Insightful)
That's upside-down. Telomeres automatically shorten themselves with every cell division. Cells with very short telomeres die. This acts to limit cell divison, and probably exists (among other reasons) to limit runaway growth like cancer. Telomerase is not involved in this process at all, and in fact is not present in most normal cells.
Telomerase acts to lengthen telomeres so that the cells in question can keep dividing. Telomerase exists likely so that cell which do need to divide forever (like germ cells and bone marrow cells) can overcome the telomere limit imposed on the rest of the body.
afaik, telomerase breaks down telomeres, no matter what kind of cell you have.
Again, that's backwards. Most cancer cells express telomerase where the normal cell wouldn't. This lengthens the telomeres and allows cell division to continue.
Thus, inhibiting telomerase will re-impose the division limit on cancer cells, suppressing tumor growth. That's what this study claims to do.
Summary:
Telomere: passive cancer suppressor/division limiter present in every cell.
Telomerase: enzyme to allow a few special-case cells to keep dividing despite telomeres.
Cancer: often turns on telomerase in cell types where it should be dormant.
Re:But America leads the world in science (Score:2, Insightful)
then go home (Score:2, Insightful)
Seriously, go home to your own country and publish there. I am not saying this to be rude, and I know it sounds very politically incorrect.
Here is the deal. The USA has a ton of money. They try and steal as much talent from foriegn countries as they can. Two things happen because of this. First, the USA benifits from the brains it gets. It is just like 100 years ago with natural resources from third world countries. Now it is with human talent. A good example would be baseball, and how we are "farming" the dominican republic and other latin american countries. The players come here because the most money is here. But imagine, just for one second, if those players said to hell with the money, we want national pride, our own leagues, our own system. The talent in the USA would go down, and the games in the forigen countries would get much more interesting. But I digress. This is about science. Imagine if, for example, all the brainy chinese people who have come to the USA for graduate studies in the sciences stayed in their own country. I think it is reasonable to assume some of these people will be good enough to add something to the progress of, say, wepons systems. Now the USA has one more means of power, of forcing other nations to do what they otherwise would not want to do, or to not do what they would be inclined to do. For example, China has been waiting for the right moment to take back Tiwan. They have not because of the USA.
So my adivice to all the foriegners is GO HOME. The USA is not the great place you have been lead to believe. You can make just as good a life at home as here, probably better. But if you measure sucess by money, sure you will probably make some here. But if you measure sucess by happiness, then go home. The only bad thing about staying home is, sooner or later, the USA will find a reason to bomb your country. I think in the past decade we have bombed countries in over 4 continents, including europe. And it does not matter how much the rest of the world hates us, we keep doing it anyways.
Re:I wonder... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Obvious question (Score:2, Insightful)
I once read a suggestion that if everyone waited to reproduce at age 40, without medical intervention, then after 3 or so generations humans would live a lot longer. Only those who managed to survive that long, and only women whose eggs managed to fight off the ravages of 40 years of life, would pass on their genes. Of course, there would be a lot fewer of us.
Re:denied (Score:2, Insightful)