The significant role of gene in cancer suppression

A team of researchers from Adelaide discovered that a particular gene plays a significant role in lymphoma suppression which is a type of blood cell cancer. The gene we`re talking about is the so-called caspase-2. This gene was discovered 20 years ago by Professor Sharad Kumar, Co-Director of the Centre for Cancer Biology within SA Pathology, Affiliate Professor in the University of Adelaide's schools of Medicine and Molecular and Biomedical Science, and Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia's School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences. The results of this study are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on which worked Professor Kumar, in collaboration with his team of researchers, including Joseph Puccini, PhD student from the University of Adelaide. “It does this by ensuring that cells predisposed to cancer maintain a healthy number of chromosomes”, Professor Kumar says. “By some unknown mechanism, caspase-2 appears to prevent cells from losing and gaining copies of the chromosomes, which is a trait frequently observed in tumour cells”.