Key Genes Identified

Key Genes Identified

Scientific American reports today on a study that was just published in Nature, in which researchers identified seven genes which regulate a stem cell’s ability to divide limitlessly. The article is very brief, but the key scientific points are A) the researchers used short hairpin RNA to turn the genes on and off to see what happened; B) they then identified ten transcription factor genes out of seventy which seemed important and furthered narrowed those down to the seven. Clearly there is a long way to go before there are any therapeutic results from this research, but it seems like a key piece of the puzzle. I hope to hear more.