Latest Wee1 Stories

A better 'mousetrap' discovered in fruit flies might stop a human cancer-driving kinase in its tracks A seemingly obscure gene in the female fruit fly that is only active in cells that will become eggs has led researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research to the discovery of a atypical protein that lures, traps, and inactivates the powerful Polo kinase, widely considered the master regulator of cell division. Its human homolog, Polo-like kinase-1 (Plk1), is misregulated in many...

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues at the University of South Florida have discovered a mechanism that explains how some cancer cells “hijack” a biological process to potentially activate cell growth and the survival of cancer gene expression. Their study appeared in a recent issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. The newly discovered mechanism involves histones (highly alkaline proteins found in cells that package and order DNA), and in this case,...

Later-stage cancers thrive by finding detours around roadblocks that cancer drugs put in their path, but a Purdue University biochemist is creating maps that will help drugmakers close more routes and develop better drugs. Kinase enzymes deliver phosphates to cell proteins in a process called phosphorylation, switching a cellular function on or off. Irregularities in phosphorylation can lead to uncontrolled cell growth and are a hallmark of cancer. Many successful cancer drugs are...

MK 1775, a small, selective inhibitor molecule, has been found to be active against many sarcomas when tested by researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla. Their findings, recently appearing in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, published by the American Association for Cancer Research, suggest that a badly needed new agent against sarcomas - especially sarcomas affecting children - may be at hand. According to corresponding author Soner Altiok, M.D., Ph.D., sarcomas are rare forms of...

[ Watch the Video ] The accumulation of damaged protein is a hallmark of aging that not even the humble baker's yeast can escape. Yet, aged yeast cells spawn off youthful daughter cells without any of the telltale protein clumps. Now, researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research may have found an explanation for the observed asymmetrical distribution of damaged proteins between mothers and their youthful daughters. Reporting in the Nov. 23, 2011, issue of Cell the research...

Scripps Research Institute scientists have discovered a basic mechanism that can enable developing cancer cells to sustain abnormal growth. The finding is expected to lead to the targeting of this mechanism with drugs and diagnostic techniques.The study, which recently appeared in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, illuminates the roles of two nearly identical proteins, Cks1 and Cks2. These proteins were known to be overexpressed in many cancers,...

A new study shows how inflammation can help cause cancer. Chronic inflammation due to infection or to conditions such as chronic inflammatory bowel disease is associated with up to 25 percent of all cancers.This study by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center "“ Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC "“ James) found that inflammation stimulates a rise in levels of a molecule called microRNA-155 (miR-155).This, in...

Current drugs used to treat heart failure and arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat) have limited effectiveness and have side effects. New basic science findings from a University of Iowa study suggest a way that treatments could potentially be refined so that they work better and target only key heart-related mechanisms.The team, which included researchers from Vanderbilt University, showed in theory that it might be possible to use drugs that maintain the positive effects on heart function of a...

When mother and daughter cells are created each time a cell divides, they are not exactly alike. They have the same set of genes, but differ in the way they regulate them. New research now reveals that these regulatory differences between mother and daughter cells are directly linked to how they prepare for their next split. The work, a collaboration between scientists at Rockefeller University and the State University of New York, Stony Brook, may ultimately lead to a better understanding of...