To accelerate breakthroughs, the Damon Runyon Foundation provides today's best young scientists with funds to pursue innovative cancer research.
June 1, 2007
Jennifer A. Benanti, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow '04-'07) and her coworkers report interesting findings in telomere biology using a yeast model. Benanti showed that the amount of telomerase bound to telomeres may be an important control point for controlling telomere length, a process previously implicated in carcinogenesis and aging.
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Chad G. Pearson, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow '05-'08) and coworkers identified the IFT80 gene as the underlying cause of Jeune asphyxiating thoracic dystrophy, a genetic disease that leads to death in infancy, thereby establishing the first association of a defective intraflagellar transport protein with human disease.