Our Progress

Our group has been using a grid computing project from folding@home. We have been working with other groups on folding@home to find new mutations and protein misfoldings to be able to better predict misfoldings and mutations that are related to cancer. There has been a lot of progress through out the years for folding@home's work with cancer. In 2007 plans were started using folding@home as a new approach to fight cancer by developing novel chaperonin inhibitors which would inhibit certain protein foldings. Below are some certificates that are for our groups work with folding@home. These certificates show our work units and how many points we have accumulated thus far. How work units work is you complete certain work units for projects that folding at home is running. Depending on how many work units you complete and how many resources the projects take is what determines how many points you receive. Our CPU is working 100/500 work units up to this point.

This project was very rewarding for all of us. We feel like we have contributed a lot to folding@home's projects. We have decided to continue folding even after this service project is done. In the future we hope to see some really progressive results on finding a cure for cancer and we hope that folding@home can help us do just that.

Genetic & Environmental Factors that Influence Brain Cancer

1) What is the approximate heritability of brain cancer?
The heritability of brain cancers is extremely low and not precisely established. An informed estimation might suggest that the heritability is approximately 0.01 (less than 1%). Most cases of brain cancer are not inherited, although research is leading towards evidence that some genes causes susceptibility to cancer. Hereditary cancer syndrome is caused by a inherited gene mutation. If you inherit this mutation, your chances of developing this cancer increase. If multiple generations are affected by the same cancer, it is likely that those members have hereditary cancer syndrome. Overall, cancer is a highly multifactorial condition determined by genetic and environmental factors, although very little is definitively known about this disease.


2) What environmental factors influence this disease?
There are only a few well-established environmental influences that lead to the development of brain cancer. In a National Cancer Institute (NCI) study, researchers noted that people who have received high-dose ionizing radiation to the head during childhood have an increased risk of developing brain cancer. This type of radiotherapy includes exposure to gamma or X-rays. Aside from the small percentage linked to radiation exposure, few other risks have been determined. In the same study, NCI stated that there was "no evidence of higher brain tumor risk among people who use hand-held cellular phones compared to those who do not use them." The idea that cell phone use causes brain cancer is a myth.
According to numerous sources, another environmental factor that has been shown to contribute to brain cancer is vinyl chloride. This is a chemical found in plastic products and tobacco smoke.

Sources:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/risk/brain-tumor-study
http://www.accessdna.com/condition/Brain_Cancer/67

Questions on Cancer and Stem Cells

These questions address the Cancer Research journal article entitled “Normal Stem Cells and Cancer Stem Cells: The Niche Matters” by Li and Neaves (2006).

1. In your interview, there was much discussion about potential treatments for cancer. This article addresses the idea of utilizing stem cells for cancer treatment, as well as its antithesis, as it discusses the role of stem cells in cancer causation. It states that as few as 1 to 2 mutations can change a stem cell into a cancer cell. Remembering that mutations generate variation, how is cancer an evolutionary phenomenon?

Cancer is an evolutionary phenomenon because the mutations of the cancer cell are not selected against. Usually when mutations occur in an organism that are deleterious and they are selected against and do not make it into the next generation because the organism does not survive long enough. Cancer cells are able to replicate without end from their niche when the niche isn't functioning correctly. The niche usually only lets certain stem cells replicate and doesn't allow stem cells with mutations to do so. It does this by controlling the rate of propagation and differentiation of the stem cells. When the niche is affected it cannot control either of these so mutations that can cause cancerous cells can be produced rapidly. Cancer is constantly affected through means of natural selection and cancer can become malignant or benign through mutation and reproduction. Cancer is also an evolutionary phenomenon, because it is a mutation within stem cells. It is hard to say how to treat cancer the best way because stem cells are rather complicated cells in that they not only multiply but they become different specialized cells for the specific organ that they are created in, so stems cells are constantly changing. It would be interesting to see what research has been done with treating cancerous cells with new stem cells from embryonic tissue. A pertinent question would be whether or not the new stem cells would start to develop and become viable cells specialized for the particular organ or if they would become cancerous cells like the ones that are present in the individual with cancer.

2. Most genes code for proteins. Given the information in this article and the above question, why is it important to look at protein folding and mis-folding when studying cancer?

It is important to study protein folding and mis-folding when studying cancer because mutations are what cause protein mis-folding. Protein mis-folding is what is occurring when cancer cells are created. If we can study and find out what mutations cause cancerous cells then we are one step closer to understanding what we can do to prevent these mutations from occurring. If we don't look at protein folding and miss-folding then we won't be able know why these cancer cells behave the way they do and how they were created. Proteins can fold in so many different ways, and for that matter can mis-fold in so many different ways. We need to continue to study the folding and mis-folding in cancerous cells because there is a great chance that there are multiple different ways that proteins can mis-fold and create a cancerous stem cell. Also, if we are able to identify what receptors fail to engage or the chaperone's responsible for particular proteins, we may be able to manipulate the system to perform more desirable outputs. If we find one mis-folding that causes cancer and we stop there then the problem still exists. We have to find out all of the different probabilities for what could possibly cause this disease.

3. In an evolutionary sense, why is it informative to study cancer and its implications in flies or, especially, in mice?

Evolutionarily it's important to study cancer and its implications in flies or in mice because if we can study the progression of cancer from beginning to end we can see how the cancerous cells are created and how they react within the body. It is especially important to study the implications of cancer within mice because they are evolutionarily closely related to humans, and are mammals as well. This means that most of the systems within their bodies react and act the same way that our own systems do. This can be very beneficial because if we can discover a way to effectively treat and destroy cancer cells in mice then there is a very good chance that this treatment would be effective in humans as well. Finally, it is also ethically more acceptable to begin experimentation on a species other than humans, like fruit flies or mice.

4. What is a niche in the context of an ecosystem? Is the stem cell “niche” similar, in that different niches impose different selection pressures on the stem cells? Explain how niche control of stem cells is like natural selection.

A niche in the context of an ecosystem is the position or function of an organism in a community of plants and animals. A stem cell "niche" is similar to an ecosystem niche because the stem cell niche acts as the controller of the function of the stem cell. It is what controls how rapidly and how many stem cells are created. The niche does impose different selection pressures on the stem cells. The niche selects for stem cells that do not have mutations to continue to propagate. The ones with mutations are not chosen. The niche control of stem cells is like natural selection because only the stems cells that will contribute positively with the environment and will be beneficial are selected for while stem cells with deleterious mutations are selected against. What is negative about these cancerous cells is that the niche is no longer able to control the rate at which the cells propagate and differentiate which can allow for a lot more mutations. So when a mutation occurs that creates a cancerous cell the niche will allow the cancerous stem cell to replicate rapidly. Without natural selection imposed by the niches things can get really dire in a body where cancerous mutations are abundant. By continuing the study the folding of proteins and the effects of mutation on stem cells we come closer to discovering how to bring back the effect of natural selection to the niches that control these stem cells.