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Harvard Medical School
July 16, 2004
GENETICS: Versatile Switch Designed for Protein Studies
Norbert Perrimon (on right), Change Tan, and colleagues report a new tool to control protein activity: a small, catalytic stretch of protein, called an intein, that is temperature-sensitive. Inserted into an experimental protein, the intein inactivates the host until it splices itself out. And the self-splicing only happens at the permissive temperature of 18 degrees Centigrade. At higher temperatures, the intein and, therefore, the host protein remain inactive. Tan has used a variety of protein/intein combinations to control protein expression in yeast and fruit flies. The system can be adapted to many more model organisms that thrive between 18 and 30 degrees Centigrade. The work is reported in July's Nature Biotechnology.
ONCOLOGY: Key Relay Protein Shapes Cancer Message
Among the fastest growing breast cancers are those that produce an overabundance of the receptor Her2/Neu. It now appears that a tiny enzyme able to latch onto proteins and change their shape plays a critical and surprising role in promoting these and other virulent forms of breast cancer. By removing this protein, Pin1, from Her2/Neu transgenic mice, Harvard Medical School researchers were able to prevent all but a few animals from developing tumors. The findings by Gerburg Wulf (on left), Kun Ping Lu, and colleagues appear in the July 15 EMBO Journal.
NEUROSCIENCE: Secrets of Brain Aging Revealed
Researchers led by Bruce Yankner (on right) and Tao Lu have identified a group of genes whose activity decreases with age in the human brain. The decline, starting as early as age 40, results from damage to the brain's DNA and progresses at widely varying rates in different individuals. Among the genes most affected are those involved in learning and memory. The study, reported in the June 24 Nature, raises the possibility that protecting against DNA damage could delay aging and age-related neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.