So when will we find “the” cure for cancer?

Often times, people ask, “when will we find the cure for cancer?”

There are multiple problems with asking this question. My biggest hang up is the “the“. It implies that there is a single cure, a “silver bullet” so to speak. It implies that we have not made progress, but once we find “the cure”, all cancers will be eliminated.

If it were that simple, I believe cancer would not remain the second leading cause of deaths in the U.S. (after heart disease). Unfortunately, cancer is not one disease; it is a group of disease… in fact, each type of cancer (breast cancer, lung cancer, melanoma, sarcoma, etc) is a group of diseases.

Although all cancer cells share certain characteristics that make them “cancerous”, there are variations in the mechanisms that allow cells to become cancerous. Inherently, therefore, there will not be a drug that will work on all cancer cells.

I believe that cancer will be a manageable disease once we are fully capable of characterizing the genetic makeup for each cancer for each patient, and subsequently provide personalized targeted therapeutic approaches.

Believe it or not, we are making great strides and we are on our way toward that goal.

The Significance of Protein Phosphorylation

What is it?

“Protein Phosphorylation” is the addition of a phosphate (aka phospho group, depicted on the left) onto specific sites within a protein. Protein phosphorylation is mediated by an enzyme called a “kinase”.

From the point of view of chemistry, a phosphate is made up of 1 phosphorus (P) atom and 4 oxygen (O) atoms.

What does it do?

From a functional standpoint, phosphorylation of a protein has significant implications in biology! Here is a brief list of the impact a phosphorylation can have on a protein:

1. It can attract other proteins to the phosphorylated protein, which leads to interactions between the two proteins, and subsequently can perform a certain cellular function.
2. It can change the conformation of the protein, which can lead to either 1) activation (functional), or 2) deactivation (non-functional or inactive) of the protein.
3. It can target the protein for degradation (i.e. initiate the process of degradation of the protein).

Interesting Dynamics

Some proteins can be phosphorylated at more than one site. Phosphorylations at different sites within the same protein can lead to opposing effects. Phosphorylation at site 1 can activate the protein, while at site 2 deactivate the protein.

Conversely, protein phosphorylation can act in concert: phosphorylation at site 1 can set up the stage to phosphorylation at site 2, which renders a fully active protein.

As mentioned previously, kinases add phosphates to proteins. Thus, as you can image (given the number of proteins in a cell and the number of potential phosphorylation sites), there are many many different kinases in the cell, each has a specific target or a group of target proteins.

Why is this important?

Unintended increase in protein phosphorylation has been implicated in certain diseases, such as cancer. If critical proteins are phosphorylated when they are not supposed to, these proteins can remain active.  This can help cells remain alive, continue to proliferate, or both, when they are not supposed to.

Attempts to design drugs that target or prevent the unintended phosphorylation of proteins are ongoing to treat diseases such as cancer. Such type of drug would be called “targeted therapy” because it targets cells that carry a specific type of molecular abnormality.

What is Immunofluorescence?

What is Immunofluorescence?

Red, Blue, and Green.

All these colors…

Can this be science?

Absolutely!

Immunofluorescence is a very cool scientific research techniques that allow scientists:

1. Determine the presence or absence of a specific protein in a cell.

2. Identify the cellular localization of a protein of interest (i.e. where is the protein located in the cell).

3. Identify if two proteins co-localize (or interact) within a cell.

4. and more…

Collectively, observations made through immunofluorescence can help scientists unravel the mechanisms through which a cell responds to a specific stimulus or its surrounding environment.

Oh, and by the way, some of these images can be incredibly beautiful.

To view immunofluorescence images and digital art inspired by immunofluorescence, please visit the Images > Immunofluorescence category

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