New role for the JNK protein
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 - 11:49
in Biology & Nature
Put simply, a tumor is the result of out-of-control cell growth. To assure that the cell cycle - the cell's process of duplicating itself to make more cells - goes smoothly, a large network of proteins tells other proteins what to do and when to do it. When any of these layers of protein regulation fail, cell growth can get out of hand. A new study led by Ze'ev Ronai, Ph.D., associate director of Sanford-Burnham's National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center, reveals a new player in cell cycle control. These findings, which appeared online in Nature Cell Biology on June 27, showed that JNK, a protein already well known for other duties, also regulates the cell cycle.