To accelerate breakthroughs, the Damon Runyon Foundation provides today's best young scientists with funds to pursue innovative cancer research.
February 6, 2006
Steven A. Jacobs, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow '04-'05) has deciphered the detailed structure of an essential piece of the telomerase enzyme, an important contributor to the vast majority of human cancers. Dr. Jacobs' work, published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, permits a better understanding of how telomerase acts to convert normal cells to cancer cells and is likely to allow the design of broadly effective cancer drugs.