Australian researchers were surprised when an experiment literally laughed in their faces.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe spend 90 per cent of our time going down dead ends, and sometimes you feel\u00a0as though a disease is having a cackle at your expense,\u201d says Dr Beric Henderson,\u00a0head of the gene expression laboratory at Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical\u00a0Research (WMI), where this was filmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis just says it all. But we\u2019ve never, ever seen anything like this ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n
The beta-catenin protein causes cancer by moving into the cell nucleus, the round\u00a0\u201cface\u201d or centre of the cell (see attached photo), and activating a set of genes that\u00a0transform normal cells into tumour cells.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In this highly-unusual image, beta-catenin (green) was monitored moving into the\u00a0nucleus, the round shape in the centre. The dark patches in the nucleus that bear an\u00a0uncanny resemblance to a smiley face, with eyes and a mouth, are actually parts of\u00a0the nucleus where the beta-catenin protein cannot enter.<\/p>\n
WMI researchers are trying to understand how beta-catenin moves into the nucleus\u00a0and in future design drugs to stop its entry into the nucleus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australian researchers were surprised when an experiment literally laughed in their faces. \u201cWe spend 90 per cent of our time going down dead ends, and sometimes you feel\u00a0as though a disease is having a cackle at your expense,\u201d says Dr Beric Henderson,\u00a0head of the gene expression laboratory at Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical\u00a0Research (WMI), where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-2469","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}