New Protein that is Involved with Cancer?

This is straying from my normal topic a little bit, but last week I read a really cool article for my AP Biology class and thought I would share it with you all.J

This article talked about cells and two new proteins discovered in the cell that help in transforming new cells into whatever kind of cell it needs to be, called YAP/TAZ. This protein is really cool because when a cell divides, creating a new cell, the protein attaches itself to the DNA in the nucleus of the cell and changes it into the different type of cell that it needs to be, whether it be a lung, skin, or blood cell.

Another thing about this protein is that it is the “switch” that turns off or turns on the process of cell division. For example, if you get a cut on your arm, YAP/TAP will “turn on” the process of cell division and create new cells to clear up the cut on the arm. However, if the protein does not turn off the process of cell division, the cells keep going, which is a new leading factor of the cause of tumors.

As you can probably conclude, this discovery of the new protein is a very huge impact on everyone. It is because it now suggests that cancer may not be genetic but may be more based on how your proteins are working in your body. This can help scientists and doctors because it gives them a new lead on where to start to cure cancer and get rid of it once and for all. The fact that we found out that the shape of a cell and how our proteins work just helps us figure out new ways to think about other discoveries which can help us create new treatments to cure this and also help narrow down how scientists can figure out this problem that has troubled us for many years.

Finding out this new scientific discovery is huge and very exciting because it is one step closer to curing cancer which is good because we wouldn’t lose so many people way too early than we actually should.