Fruit flies help uncover tumor-preventing protein complex

Pictured here are ectopic neural stem cells formed from dedifferentiation of progenitor cells upon loss of both HDAC3 and Snr1 (a subunit of the Brahma complex). Credit: Chwee Tat Koe

A team of researchers from Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School have discovered a protein complex that disrupts the process known as dedifferentiation, known to promote tumor development.

Dedifferentiation (reversion) is a process that leads progenitor or mature cells to become 'ectopic neural stem cells' which causes tumors. By detecting this protein complex, Duke-NUS researchers have shed light on a process that inhibits tumor development and gives hope for the discovery of therapies and treatments that target tumor prevention through this pathway.

http://phys.org/news/2014-03-fruit-flies-uncover-tumor-preventing-protein.html