O.o um what?
Over the past few years biologists have developed several lines of evidence showing that one particular protein molecule inside cells plays an extraordinary variety of life-protecting roles, so much so that the molecule has been dubbed a “guardian angel.” The findings are leading to greater knowledge of how life works and to a deeper understanding of the root causes of cancer.
So pervasive is the molecule’s role that scientists in four areas of biology were on the trail of it, each field unaware, until recently, of the protein’s importance in the others.
Molecular biologists, for example, were trying to learn more about how cells repair the genetic damage that is routinely inflicted by radiation, chemicals and even body heat. In another area of research, cell biologists were trying to understand how cells govern the timing of when they divide. Other cell biologists wanted to know how cells carry out a natural process called “programmed cell death,” or apoptosis, in which a cell literally commits suicide. And, finally, cancer researchers were puzzled by the fact that at least half of all victims had tumors with mutations in one particular gene — so many that they called the gene a “tumor suppressor” on the grounds that when it was knocked out, a cell was predisposed to become cancerous. A Four-Team Effort.
