Blog Comments

Kinetica Online is pleased to provide direct links to commentaries from our senior editor Dr. Steven Pelech has posted on other blogs sites. Most of these comments appear on the GenomeWeb Daily Scan website, which in turn highlight interesting blogs that have been posted at numerous sites in the blogosphere since the beginning of 2010. A wide variety of topical subjects are covered ranging from the latest scientific breakthroughs, research trends, politics and career advice. The original blogs and Dr. Pelech’s comments are summarized here under the title of the original blog. Should viewers wish to add to these discussions, they should add their comments at the original blog sites.

The views expressed by Dr. Pelech do not necessarily reflect those of the other management and staff at Kinexus Bioinformatics Corporation. However, we wish to encourage healthy debate that might spur improvements in how biomedical research is supported and conducted.

Oncogenes

Cancer-causing mutations yield their secrets

Three recent papers published in Nature have shed new light on how mutations in the isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) gene cause brain cancer and leukaemia. IDH1 acts early in the citric-acid cycle to produce ATP, and the IDH1 mutations associated with cancer inhibit the pathway, but also cause production of a bioactive metabolite called 2-hydroxyglutarate. S. Pelech notes that mutations of IDH1 and IDH2 are amongst the most common in human cancers and may be one of the contributing factors to the observation that tumour cells commonly demonstrate higher rates of glycolysis and anaerobic production of ATP from glucose, which is known as the Warburg Effect. Read More...