Tracking cancer’s immortality factor
Scientists from Canada have made a breakthrough in the study of an enzyme essential to aging and cancer.
Scientists from Universite Montreal have used advanced microscopy to observe single molecules of telomerase within living cells.
If there is a flaw in the replication, chromosomes will get shorter each time a cell divides. In the absence of corrective action, this flaw will cause replication to stop and lead to a condition called senescence. This is a sign of aging. Telomerase normally adds extra DNA at the ends of chromosomes in order to prevent this issue, but our bodies produce less of it as we age.
Source:
https://phys.org/news/2020-06-tracking-cancer-immortality-factor.html
