Mutant gene identified that causes abnormal chromosome count, leading to cancer
Thursday, August 18, 2011 - 14:00
in Health & Medicine
Cells with too few or too many chromosomes have long been known to be a hallmark of cancer but the cause of this abnormal number of chromosomes has been little understood. Now, in the August 19th issue of Science, researchers at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, a part of Georgetown University Medical Center, have identified a gene that is commonly mutated in human cancers and have demonstrated its direct role in causing aneuploidy, an abnormal number of chromosomes.