Complex cellular machine visualized to yield new insights in cancer

Cellular machines that control chromosome structure, such as the RSC complex, are mutated in about one-fifth of all human cancers. Now, for the first time, scientists have developed a high-resolution visual map of this multi-protein machine, elucidating how the RSC complex works and what role it has in healthy and cancer cells. The study was co-led by Bradley Cairns, Ph.D., cancer researcher at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) and professor and chair of oncological sciences at the University of Utah, along with Ning Gao, Ph.D., at Peking University and Zhucheng Chen, Ph.D., at Tsinghua University in China. The study was published today in the journal Science.