Nature paper shows that cell division is reversible:Door open for treatment of cancer, birth defects

 From the, "in case you missed it" department. ~ Janice

<http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1616171/posts>Nature
paper shows that cell division is reversible:Door
open for treatment of cancer, birth defects
<http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1616171//^http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-04/omrf-rpn041006.php>Eureka
Alert ^
|
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-04/omrf-rpn041006.php 04/12/2006
Posted on 04/16/2006 8:11:02 PM EDT by
<http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1616171//~sirlinksalot/>SirLinksalot

Rewind, please: Nature paper shows that cell
division is reversible -- Discovery could open
doors for treatment of cancer, birth defects
Contact: Adam
Cohen
<mailto:adam-cohen@omrf.ouhsc.edu>adam-cohen@omrf.ouhsc.edu
405-271-7159 <http://www.omrf.org>Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation

Oklahoma City–Gary J. Gorbsky, Ph.D., a scientist
with the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation,
has found a way to reverse the process of cell division.

The discovery could have important implications
for the treatment of cancer, birth defects and
numerous other diseases and disorders. Gorbsky's
findings appear in the April 13 issue of the journal Nature.

"No one has gotten the cell cycle to go backwards
before now," said Gorbsky, who holds the W.H. and
Betty Phelps Chair in Developmental Biology at
OMRF. "This shows that certain events in the cell
cycle that have long been assumed irreversible may, in fact, be reversible."

Cell division occurs millions of times each day
in the human body and is essential to life
itself. In the lab, Gorbsky and his OMRF
colleagues were able to control the protein
responsible for the division process, interrupt
and reverse the event, sending duplicate
chromosomes back to the center of the original
cell, an event once thought impossible.

"Our studies indicate that the factors pointing
cells toward division can be turned and even
reversed," Gorbsky said. "If we wait too long,
however, it doesn't work, so we know that there
are multiple regulators in the cell division
cycle. Now we will begin to study the triggers
that set these events in motion."

The findings may prove important to controlling
the development and metastasis of certain
cancers. It also holds promise for the prevention
and treatment of birth defects and a wide variety of other conditions.

"Dr. Gorbsky's results provide elegant proof that
the cell cycle must be precisely controlled,"
said Dr. Rodger McEver, OMRF vice president of
research. "Now he and his lab can work toward
developing innovative methods to probe and better
understand the complex process of cell division."

Gorbsky heads the Molecular, Cell and
Developmental Biology Research Program at OMRF
and holds both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in biology
from Princeton University. He is also adjunct
professor of Cell Biology at the University of
Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and a member of
the OU Cancer Institute. His research focuses on
mitosis and cytokinesis, the processes involved
in cell division, and he has earned international
recognition for his work in the area of
chromosomal movement and cell cycle control.

###

The current research project, done in
collaboration with scientists from the University
of Virginia Medical School, was supported by
grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society.

High-resolution digital images of the cell
division process, as well as of Gorbsky, are available upon request.

About OMRF: Celebrating its 60th birthday in
2006, OMRF (www.omrf.org) is a nonprofit
biomedical research institute dedicated to
understanding and curing human disease. Its
scientists focus on such critical research areas
as Alzheimer's disease, cancer, lupus and
cardiovascular disease. It is home to Oklahoma's
only member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Interesting. By eliminating cell-division, cancer
can be reversed if not
cured. <http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1616171/posts?page=2#2>2

There's a video related to it too :

<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7086/extref/nature04652-s6.mov>http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7086/extref/nature04652-s6.mov
<http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1616171/posts?page=3#3>3
Received on Sun Apr 16 21:13:19 2006