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The Daily OrangeSU research team makes leukemia breakthrough
By Rebecca Kheel
Posted: 11/12/08, 12:57 AM EST Section: News
"Proteins are fragile little molecules," Cosgrove said. "They require being folded in a very precise way. If it doesn't fold properly, it doesn't function properly. When you take it out of the cell in an isolated way, sometimes they might not fold properly."
On the research end, the next step is identifying more interactions of the proteins, said Anamika Patel, who is conducting her postdoctoral research.
"Suppose we have A, B, C, and D," Patel said. "We have indentified the interaction between A and B, but we have to still identify the complete thing, how B and C is formed, how C and D is formed, and how it's overall affecting the activity of MLL."
The team also needs to test their findings in vivo, on live tissue, before the results can be applied to medicinal use.
"Whatever results we have are individual results," Patel explained. "We know how this functions in a test tube. This can eventually be worked out as a leukemia treatment, but the basic thing would be to test it in vivo."
Senior biology major Benny Howard said there
are many subprojects in progress under the research of MLL. He has been examining a critical structural point of the protein.
"That's another thing to look at when you want to design drugs," Howard said. "You can either disrupt an interaction between two proteins, or you can directly attack the protein."
The team began the research with the intention of looking closely at the MLL protein but did not start with the intention of discovering a possible cure for leukemia.
Howard said the research process was a reaction to individual discoveries.
"In this case you said, 'Hey, there's something weird going on. These two proteins are doing something with each other,'" he said. "'You know, I bet we can actually design a drug and disrupt this complex. Perhaps in the future this can lead to treatments that can help people with these types of leukemia.'"
rhkheel@syr.edu
On the research end, the next step is identifying more interactions of the proteins, said Anamika Patel, who is conducting her postdoctoral research.
"Suppose we have A, B, C, and D," Patel said. "We have indentified the interaction between A and B, but we have to still identify the complete thing, how B and C is formed, how C and D is formed, and how it's overall affecting the activity of MLL."
The team also needs to test their findings in vivo, on live tissue, before the results can be applied to medicinal use.
"Whatever results we have are individual results," Patel explained. "We know how this functions in a test tube. This can eventually be worked out as a leukemia treatment, but the basic thing would be to test it in vivo."
Senior biology major Benny Howard said there
are many subprojects in progress under the research of MLL. He has been examining a critical structural point of the protein.
"That's another thing to look at when you want to design drugs," Howard said. "You can either disrupt an interaction between two proteins, or you can directly attack the protein."
The team began the research with the intention of looking closely at the MLL protein but did not start with the intention of discovering a possible cure for leukemia.
Howard said the research process was a reaction to individual discoveries.
"In this case you said, 'Hey, there's something weird going on. These two proteins are doing something with each other,'" he said. "'You know, I bet we can actually design a drug and disrupt this complex. Perhaps in the future this can lead to treatments that can help people with these types of leukemia.'"
rhkheel@syr.edu
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satria
posted 11/22/08 @ 3:14 PM EST
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