Video abstract: Why do some cells misbehave?
| Author |  Editor in Chief, Condensates.com |
|---|---|
| Type | Video |
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When I was a postdoc in the lab of Tanja Mittag at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, I got the pleasure of working with the SJ Communications team to create this 1-minute video summarizing our 2018 Molecular Cell paper about how a tumor suppressor functions inside nuclear condensates. We showed that cancer mutations in the tumor suppressor SPOP disrupt liquid-liquid phase separation and make cancer cells misbehave.
SJ caption: Researchers led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have identified another way the process that causes oil to form droplets in water may contribute to solid tumors, such as prostate and breast cancer. This latest research shows that mutations in the tumor suppressor gene SPOP contribute to cancer by disrupting a process called liquid-liquid phase separation. The research comes amid growing interest among cell biologists in liquid-liquid phase separation and its role in cellular function, aging and disease, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.