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Feb 7, 2006 7:54 pm US/Mountain
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CU Scientists Make Headway In Cancer Research
by Shaun Boyd
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) ―
Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder had a big breakthrough in cancer research. For the first time, scientists have learned the shape of an enzyme that switches on cancer cells and is key in the spread of 90 percent of cancers.
The telomerase enzyme has been a mystery that's long baffled cancer researchers. They knew it was the switch that turned on cancer cells causing them to divide and cancer to spread, but they didn't know what the enzyme looked like.
"So it's really powerful because this is the mechanism that underlies a lot of different cancers," said Elaine Podell, a CU biochemist.
Podell is among a group of scientists who discovered the shape of a fragment of the enzyme, a process that in and of itself was a big breakthrough. They needed to make an abundance of the enzyme just to see it. They grew crystals from that and then used a hi-tech X-ray technique to chart its shape.
"And based on how the X-rays bounce back tells you where the atoms are and what the shape is," Podell said. "So if we know what this enzyme looks like, know the shape, we've got a better idea what's important in its activity."
Podell said she hopes the discovery will speed the development of drugs to interfere with or even deactivate the enzyme.
In the meantime, the scientists will continue to map the rest of the enzyme and study exactly how it works.
The research was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, headed up by CU Nobel
Laureate Tom Cech.
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