Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation

Arshad B. Desai, PhD (Connie and Bob Lurie Damon Runyon Scholar '04-'06) and colleagues reported a major discovery in understanding how cells divide – a process central to the development of cancer.  Dr. Desai is the senior author on two studies published in the prestigious journal Cell describing the "chromosome-spindle" connection, a critical component for the inheritance of genetic information as cells divide.  One publication details a newly identified protein group that pulls apart the two replicas of the duplicated genome during cell division.  The other describes a separate protein complex that helps the cell discriminate between correct and incorrect spindle connections and turns off the pulling process when the connections are incorrect, ensuring that each new cell has the correct number of chromosomes.  These seminal discoveries shed new light on the genesis of cancer and could result in improved cancer therapies.

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