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Biotech / Medical : PROTEOMICS -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nigel bates who wrote (231)	3/31/2001 8:09:27 PM
From: keokalani'nui	Respond to of 539

Vanderbilt develops cancer breakthrough IMAGE PROVIDED BY VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY Imaging mass spectrometry takes "molecular photographs" of a slice of a human brain tumor (upper left), and shows the distribution of different proteins in the tissue. At the bottom right, in yellow, is thymosin beta-4, a protein that may enable the cancer cells to spread throughout the brain. Information gained from these images may help scientists figure out how to block the protein and stop the cancer from growing. By BILL SNYDER Staff Writer Researchers at Vanderbilt University have developed a new technology for taking ''molecular photographs'' of specific proteins in cells that may lead to improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The technology, called imaging mass spectrometry, may improve cancer surgery by pinpointing the precise location of tissue that is producing high levels of a protein thought to allow tumors to grow. In the future, researchers may be able to develop drugs that block the protein, which could slow down or stop the cancer in its tracks. Imaging mass spectrometry ''brings a new tool to bear on the problem of unraveling and understanding the molecular complexities of cells,'' Richard M. Caprioli and his colleagues write in the April issue of the journal Nature Medicine. [see the whole story at] tennessean.com