Wednesday, February 14, 2007

'Gateway' gene discovered for brain cancer

Source: Cell Press
Date: February 14, 2007

Summary:

Researchers have discovered that the same genetic regulator that triggers growth of stem cells during brain development also plays a central role in the development of the lethal brain cancer malignant glioma. In experiments on mice with such gliomas, they showed that knocking out the function of a particular regulatory protein, Olig2, almost completely eliminated tumor formation.