Ó³»­´«Ã½

Part of what we do at the Ó³»­´«Ã½ involves unraveling the genomes of humans, dogs, and dozens of other creatures as part of a larger mission to improve human health. In addition to finding genes or mutations linked with disease, Ó³»­´«Ã½ scientists seek to learn what the genes are doing functionally, and how to use that information to devise new therapies.

The Ó³»­´«Ã½ is expected to open for normal business hours on Thursday, January 13, 2011.

In an earlier post we took note of the birthday of Nettie Maria Stevens, noted female geneticist whose research on chromosomes of the common fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster furthered understanding of chromosomal sex determination.

In a published January 5, 2011 in Science Translational Medicine, Anna Mandinova and Sam Lee, both researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate members of the Ó³»­´«Ã½, describe the obstacles and promise of developing small compounds that target the p53 pathway, the most common pathway involved in cancer. I asked them both to discuss the challenges of finding p53-targeted molecules and the approaches they are currently working on.