Sign in with Facebook
Jessica Wapner’s Followers (13)
Jessica Wapner
Website
Twitter
Genre
More books by Jessica Wapner…
“Still, for the moment he was keeping quiet about his interest in cancer. “You have to realize, cancer was a devastating disease,” said Druker. “Everybody died.” The disease was a grim, dark domain where only the most morbid physician dared tread, and Druker was unwilling to admit, even to himself, that he was fascinated by it. “Everybody was afraid of it, and people in oncology [were] weird because this disease was so hopeless,” he recalled. “Why would you go take care of patients with no hope? You were crazy if you were going to do that.”
― The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the Improbable Invention of a Lifesaving Treatment
― The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the Improbable Invention of a Lifesaving Treatment
“Several molecules had already shown some anti-kinase activity (albeit with the coarse profiling tools available at the time). There was the isoquinolinesulfonamide from Hidaka’s work. A group from Japan found that a molecule they named erbstatin inhibited EGFR. A group in Israel, led by Yosef Graziani, showed that quercetin, part of a naturally occurring group of chemicals known as flavones, also affected kinase activity inside some tumor cells. The same had been seen with some isoflavones, which also occurred naturally. And there was staurosporine, the antifungal agent that Levitzki had been exploring as an inhibitor of PKC. The fatal flaw of that compound had been its lack of specificity. Could it be adjusted in a way that led it to one kinase, and one kinase only, inside the cell? The next task was to actually make”
― The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the Improbable Invention of a Lifesaving Treatment
― The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the Improbable Invention of a Lifesaving Treatment
“PDGFR, or Bcr/Abl. Their strategy was to focus on the exact place on the kinase that bound phosphate on its way from ATP to the protein. The theory behind kinase inhibition was that each kinase had a particular notch or groove that made a tight fit with ATP, and that the shape of these notches varied from kinase to kinase. That variation was what made kinases viable drug targets. Zimmermann believed that this binding site—the exact spot where the kinase bound ATP to capture the phosphate that would be used to switch on another protein—seemed like the most likely location of each kinase’s unique fingerprint. That binding site was what allowed the kinase to serve its function on the cell, so it made sense to Zimmermann that this area would be distinct both from the binding site of other kinases and from other areas on the same kinase.”
― The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the Improbable Invention of a Lifesaving Treatment
― The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the Improbable Invention of a Lifesaving Treatment
Topics Mentioning This Author
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Life of a Boo...: Ioana's Individual Reading Goals 2014 | 82 | 121 | Apr 24, 2014 07:03PM | |
The Seasonal Read...:
Spring 2015 Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE POSTS
|
3347 | 574 | May 31, 2015 08:59PM | |
| WACKY READING CHA...: 15X15 Challenge | 264 | 184 | Sep 06, 2016 05:03PM | |
| Crazy Challenge C...: 2015 Namedroppers | 252 | 219 | Aug 08, 2018 05:45AM | |
| Crazy Challenge C...: A-Z Non-Fiction Challenge - CLOSED TO NEW SIGN-UPS | 164 | 195 | Aug 10, 2022 08:39PM |
Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Jessica to Goodreads.
