{"id":209,"date":"2015-12-20T15:24:49","date_gmt":"2015-12-20T23:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/?p=209"},"modified":"2019-08-01T11:43:32","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T18:43:32","slug":"linking-centromeres-and-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/2015\/12\/20\/linking-centromeres-and-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking For the Link Between Centromeres and Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>DNA, the &#8220;building blocks of life&#8221;, can be bent and broken. While it is the source code for every creature on the earth, DNA is also the source of\u00a0some of the most difficult diseases that plague humanity. Tonight at 7PM PST, Steve Friedman joins us from the department of <a href=\"http:\/\/biochem.science.oregonstate.edu\/\">Biochemistry and Biophysics<\/a> to discuss characterizing centromeres of a filamentous fungi called\u00a0<em>Neurospora crassa.\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/biology.about.com\/od\/mitosisglossary\/g\/centromere.htm\">Centromeres<\/a>, the part of the chromosome that is targeted by proteins that aid in cell division, are studied to understand how genetic mutations and resulting abnormalities in cells can lead to genetic disease and cancer.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_206\" style=\"width: 254px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/files\/2015\/12\/IMAG0712.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-206\" class=\" wp-image-206\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/files\/2015\/12\/IMAG0712-300x170.jpg\" alt=\"Flasks containing strains of Neurospora crassa\" width=\"244\" height=\"138\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-206\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flasks containing strains of Neurospora crassa<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Fungi serve as a model organism for the study of centromeres in Steve&#8217;s work because their genetic code is more complex than the yeast (S<em>accharomyces cerevisiae<\/em>)\u00a0that have been used in older\u00a0studies, but still easier to study and understand than the complicated human genome.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding how the human genetic code controls the production of proteins that are implicated in diseases like cancer, and how these proteins relate to centromeres that are crucial parts of a natural and healthy process of cell division, is the long term goal of such research.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about Steve and his work, tune in at 88.7 KBVR FM, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ustream.tv\/channel\/osu-kbvr-fm\">stream the show live<\/a>!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_208\" style=\"width: 183px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/files\/2015\/12\/XSF56.1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-208\" class=\" wp-image-208\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/files\/2015\/12\/XSF56.1-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"microscopy images of GFP\/RFP tagged centromere proteins (taken in Galya Orr's Lab at PNNL)\" width=\"173\" height=\"173\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-208\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Microscopy images of GFP\/RFP tagged centromere proteins (taken in Galya Orr&#8217;s Lab at PNNL).<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_207\" style=\"width: 156px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/files\/2015\/12\/P1080603.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-207\" class=\" wp-image-207\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/files\/2015\/12\/P1080603-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Steve enjoys some time away from the lab\" width=\"146\" height=\"194\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-207\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steve enjoys some time away from the lab<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DNA, the &#8220;building blocks of life&#8221;, can be bent and broken. While it is the source code for every creature on the earth, DNA is also the source of\u00a0some of the most difficult diseases that plague humanity. Tonight at 7PM PST, Steve Friedman joins us from the department of Biochemistry and Biophysics to discuss characterizing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[644798,1375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biochemistry-and-biophysics","category-college-of-science"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6420"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions\/214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}