Yale Bulletin and Calendar

September 20-27, 1999

Volume 28, Number 5

Research offers insights into enzyme
that makes cancer cells grow

A Yale researcher has helped increase scientists' understanding of telomerase, an enzyme that makes cancer cells grow; the research could lead to new ways to attack cancer with chemotherapy.

The researcher -- Sandra L. Wolin, associate professor of cell biology and of molecular biophysics and biochemistry -- says the discovery is significant because it gives
scientists another clue about how the enzyme is constructed, and, therefore, where it might be vulnerable to chemotherapy.

"Telomerase is thought to be an incredibly important enzyme because it is part of what makes a cancer cell a cancer cell," says Wolin. "This discovery is important because telomerase is a potential target for chemotherapy and now we know more about it."

The study is printed in the Sept. 9 issue of Nature magazine. In addition to Wolin, the article's coauthors are Professor Thomas R. Cech of the University of Colorado, who was lead investigator; Suzanne G. Sobel, formerly a Yale researcher; and Anita G. Seto and Arthur Zaug, both of the University of Colorado.

As cells divide, chromosomes usually grow shorter and shorter, causing the cells to eventually die, explains Wolin. But when the enzyme telomerase is present, as it is in cancer cells, the telomerase preserves the ends of the chromosomes, preventing the chromosomes from dwindling in size -- thus the number of cells continues to grow. For this reason, she says, telomerase has become a "hot" area of study for cancer researchers in the last few years.

But little is known about the makeup of telomerase and how it is assembled, other than that the enzyme contains an RNA molecule and a number of proteins, says Wolin.

The latest finding came about while researchers were studying yeast cells. What they found is that the telomerase in the yeast cells contained proteins that were thought to be unique to RNA-protein complexes that process messenger RNAs. What this means, explains Wolin, is that the telomerase enzyme assembles using a pathway that already is very well known to researchers. This makes the enzyme a more accessible target for chemotherapy, she notes.

The research is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which is the country's largest private supporter of biomedical research.

-- By Jacqueline Weaver

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Gerstein's work for Human Genome Project gets $1 million boost from Keck Foundation

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. . . In the News . . .

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Campus Notes