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This press release is copyright Nature.
VOL.446 NO.7137 DATED 12 APRIL 2007
This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Cancer: Genes set scene for metastasis
Cancer: Genes linked to chemotherapy response
Smart materials: A light touch
Photochemistry: Quantum tricks in photosynthesis
And finally… Punish the rich
· Mention of papers to be published at the same time with the same embargo
· Geographical listing of authors
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[1] Cancer: Genes set scene for metastasis (pp 765-770; N&V)
Biologists have identified a set of genes expressed in human breast cancer cells that work together to remodel the vasculature at the site of the primary tumour and that also promote the spread of cancer to the lungs. The finding, reported in this week's Nature, helps to explain how cancer metastasis can occur and highlights targets for therapeutic treatment.
Metastasis is the leading cause of mortality in cancer patients. A number of genes are already known to contribute to the spread of breast cancer cells to the lungs. But Joan Massagué and colleagues now show how four genes cooperate to promote the formation of new tumour blood vessels, the release of cancer cells into the bloodstream, and the penetration of tumour cells from the bloodstream into the lung.
The gene set comprises EREG, MMP1, MMP2 and COX2; drug combinations that target more than one of these components may prove useful for treating metastatic breast cancer.
CONTACT
Joan M Massague (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, NY, USA)
Please contact:
Esther Napolitano (Public Affairs, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA)
Tel: +1 646 227 3139; E-mail: [email protected]
Gerhard Christofori (University of Basel, Switzerland) N&V author
Tel: +41 61 267 3562 E-mail: [email protected]
[2] Cancer: Genes linked to chemotherapy response (pp 815-819)
Scientists have identified a number of genes in lung cancer cells which, when downregulated, make the cancer cells especially vulnerable to a type of chemotherapy. The study, reported in this week's Nature, highlights a new way to screen for alterations in cancer cells that make them specifically sensitive to therapeutics, so that treatment may leave normal tissue relatively unharmed.
Michael A. White and colleagues used a genome-wide RNA interference screen to identify 87 genes that are involved in the response of cancer cells to paclitaxel. Reducing the expression of a number of these genes sensitizes lung cancer cells to paclitaxel at concentrations 1,000-fold lower than otherwise needed for a significant response. Some of the identified genes are already targets of currently available compounds and could be tested for responses to combinations of drugs, whereas others could be new therapeutic targets.
CONTACT
Michael A. White (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA)
Tel: +1 214 648 2861; E-mail: [email protected]
[3] Smart materials: A light touch (pp 778-781; N&V)
Researchers have developed crystals that will change their shape repeatedly when exposed to different types of light. The discovery, reported in this week's Nature, may aid the development of light-driven actuators — mechanical devices that move or control things.
The molecular crystals, developed by Masahiro Irie and colleagues, are based on a particular type of light-absorbing molecule and range from 10 to 100 micrometres in size. When ultraviolet light is shone on one type of crystal, it changes shape from a square to a lozenge. But when the same crystal is exposed to visible light, it undergoes another mechanical deformation to change back to its original form. When put in the spotlight, a rod-shaped crystal of the material attached to a surface will even oblige and use this effect to 'bat' away a micrometre-sized gold particle.
The system is stable and responds quickly, within microseconds. Previous light-responsive systems, made from liquid crystals or polymer gels, can change shape but the effect takes seconds or longer and the deformed states are unstable. And the beauty of using light as a stimulus is that it offers the intriguing prospect of actuators that can be operated remotely.
CONTACT
Masahiro Irie (Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan)
Tel: +81 3 3985 2397; E-mail: [email protected]
J. Michael McBride (Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA) N&V author
Tel: +1 203 432 3926; E-mail: [email protected]
[4] Photochemistry: Quantum tricks in photosynthesis (pp 782-786; N&V)
The weird world of quantum physics meets biology with the discovery that quantum mechanical effects appear to play a role in photosynthesis.
Graham R. Fleming and colleagues used spectroscopy to study what happens inside a bacteriochlorophyll complex, and detected a ‘quantum beating’. The effect, described in this week’s Nature, occurs when light-induced excitations in the complex meet and interfere constructively — much like the interactions that occur between the ripples formed by throwing stones into a pond.
Photosynthesis is the all-important process that transforms light, carbon dioxide and water into chemical energy in plants and some bacteria. This wavelike characteristic of this energy transfer process can explain its extreme efficiency, in that vast areas of phase space can be sampled effectively to find the most efficient path for energy transfer.
CONTACT
Graham R. Fleming (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory & University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 510 643 2735; E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]
Roseanne J. Sension (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA) N&V author
Tel: +1 734 763 6074; E-mail: [email protected]
[5] And finally… Punish the rich (pp 794-796)
We’re more likely to punish the rich than the poor, at least in games of experimental economics. The strategy, described in this week’s Nature, is emotionally driven and the results suggest that human social behaviour is influenced by egalitarian motives.
James H. Fowler and colleagues set up a game where players were randomly allocated different sums of money, and were then able to ‘reward’ or ‘punish’ others by giving or taking money away. The richest players were penalized the hardest, whereas the poorest players were penalized the least.
The results show that people will reduce and increase others’ incomes at a personal cost, even when there is no cooperative behaviour to be reinforced. Their decisions are emotionally led, and the size and frequency of income alternations are strongly influenced by inequality — the pattern of punishments is designed to minimize inequality between the richest and poorest. The study suggests that egalitarian motives affect whether or not we donate cash to others, and this may be an important factor underlying the evolution of cooperation in humans.
CONTACT
James H. Fowler (University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 858 534 6807; E-mail: [email protected]
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE…
[6] Multiple molecular mechanisms for multidrug resistance transporters (pp 749-757)
[7] A laboratory demonstration of the capability to image an Earth-like extrasolar planet (pp 771-773)
[8] Optical coherent state discrimination using a closed-loop quantum measurement (pp 774-777)
[9] A periodic shear-heating mechanism for intermediate-depth earthquakes in the mantle (pp 787-790; N&V)
[10] Conserved factors regulate signalling in Arabidopsis thaliana shoot and root stem cell organizers (pp 811-814)
ADVANCE ONLINE PUBLICATION
***These papers will be published electronically on Nature's website on 11 April at 1800 London time / 1300 US Eastern time (which is also when the embargo lifts) as part of our AOP (ahead of print) programme. Although we have included them on this release to avoid multiple mailings they will not appear in print on 12 April, but at a later date.***
[11] RNA-templated DNA repair
DOI: 10.1038/nature05720
[12] The carboxy terminus of NBS1 is required for induction of apoptosis by the MRE11 complex
DOI: 10.1038/nature05740
[13] A pre-existing hydrophobic collapse in the unfoldedstate of an ultrafast folding protein
DOI: 10.1038/nature05728
GEOGRAPHICAL LISTING OF AUTHORS…
The following list of places refers to the whereabouts of authors on the papers numbered in this release. For example, London: 4 - this means that on paper number four, there will be at least one author affiliated to an institute or company in London. The listing may be for an author's main affiliation, or for a place where they are working temporarily. Please see the PDF of the paper for full details.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague: 4
GERMANY
Berlin: 5
Freiberg: 10
Halle/Saale: 13
IRELAND
Dublin: 13
JAPAN
Fukuoka: 3
Nara: 10
Osaka: 3
NETHERLANDS
Utrecht: 10
SPAIN
Barcelona: 1
UNITED KINGDOM
Durham: 6
Kent: 13
London: 6
Norwich: 10
Oxford: 13
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
Berkeley: 4
Davis: 5
Pasadena: 7
Palo Alto: 5
San Diego: 5
Florida
Coral Gables: 5
Massachusetts
Woods Hole: 9
Worcester: 13
New Mexico
Alberquerque: 8
New York
Cold Spring Harbor: 10
New York: 1, 12
Palisades: 9
North Carolina
Research Triangle Park: 11
Texas
Dallas: 2
Washington
Seattle: 13
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Tel: +81 3 3267 8751; E-mail: [email protected]
For the UK/Europe/other countries not listed above
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Tel: +44 20 7843 4658; E-mail [email protected]
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