I've been writing a post about DNA, so when I came across an article about telomeres and cell division, I thought cool! Not only does this article have a great explanation of what telomeres are, but it describes the scientific process. Scientists at the Salk's Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory under Jan Karlseder have been studying these telomeres and their involving in aging and cancer. Reading between the lines, you can just see how these scientists would observe the changes and try to determine what was happening and why, and further how it could help cancer patients.
So what are telomeres? They're the end caps of the long DNA strands that make up your chromosomes. Every time a cell divides, these end caps shrink just a little. When they're gone or too much DNA damage is detected, other proteins are released so the cell shuts down and dies. Cancer cells often reset these telomeres so that they keep on dividing. One of the most famous cases of this are the HeLa cells, from Henrietta Lacks a black woman who died of cervical cancer in the fifties. Her cells are still alive and have been used many, many studies that have resulted in cures for several diseases. I wonder if HeLa cells were used for this study? Unfortunately, her family has been given no compensation, though many biological companies are making lots of money of HeLa cell cultures. But I digress.
Wanna learn something cool? Go read the telomere article at Science Daily. I'll be posting mine on DNA soon.
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