Article: Rewind, please: OMRF scientist reverses process of cell division
- From: "Robert Karl Stonjek" <rstonjek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006 18:48:48 -0400 (EDT)
Rewind, please: OMRF scientist reverses process of cell division
Discovery could open doors for treatment of cancer, birth defects
OKLAHOMA CITY, April 12, 2006 - Gary J. Gorbsky, Ph.D., a scientist with the
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, has found a way to reverse the process
of cell division.
The discovery could have important implications for the treatment of cancer,
birth defects and numerous other diseases and disorders. Gorbsky's findings
appear in the April 13 issue of the journal Nature, one of the world's
leading scientific publications.
"No one has gotten the cell cycle to go backwards before now," said Gorbsky,
who holds the W.H. and Betty Phelps Chair in Developmental Biology at OMRF.
"This shows that certain events in the cell cycle that have long been
assumed irreversible may, in fact, be reversible."
Cell division occurs millions of times each day in the human body and is
essential to life itself. In the lab, Gorbsky and his OMRF colleagues were
able to control the protein responsible for the division process, interrupt
and reverse the event, sending duplicate chromosomes back to the center of
the original cell, an event once thought impossible.
"Our studies indicate that the factors pointing cells toward division can be
turned and even reversed," Gorbsky said. "If we wait too long, however, it
doesn't work, so we know that there are multiple regulators in the cell
division cycle. Now we will begin to study the triggers that set these
events in motion."
The findings may prove important to controlling the development and
metastasis of certain cancers. It also holds promise for the prevention and
treatment of birth defects and a wide variety of other conditions.
"Dr. Gorbsky's results provide elegant proof that the cell cycle must be
precisely controlled," said Dr. Rodger McEver, OMRF vice president of
research. "Now he and his lab can work toward developing innovative methods
to probe and better understand the complex process of cell division."
Full Text at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
http://www.omrf.org/OMRF/News_Releases/Releases/20060412.asp
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
.
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