Many of us have had a FISH (Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization) test to find out our prognostic factors - what genetic damage is driving our CLL. There's some very exciting research being done at Australia's University of Wollongong using the same technology, to help researchers unravel how proteins work within our cells. Basically proteins are tagged with fluorescent markers so that the proteins can be followed as they interact within a cell.
As the researcher Antoine Van Oijen says: "We are interested in the basic mechanisms of how DNA in our cells is being repaired and copied. And understanding that is an important starting point in understanding disease mechanisms that are related to deficiencies in the copying or repairing of DNA. And once you understand how these proteins exactly work, then you can start thinking about original design of strategies and drugs that hopefully will be able to have a role in tackling these diseases."
From Australia's ABC Radio National Science Show:
abc.net.au/radionational/pr...
Transcript
abc.net.au/radionational/pr...
Podcast
mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/pod...
FISH technology explanation:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluor...
Neil
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