UCSF researchers have used a new strategy to study inherited susceptibility for skin cancer in mice. In the process, they have identified a network of genes that may play a key role in controlling this susceptibility. The technique, the scientists say, could be used to identify such genes in human cancers.

Consider the lab mouse. The rodent is used to model tumor growth in countless studies of genes and cancer. About 99 percent of mouse genes also appear in humans. Mouse and human also are similar when one compares the DNA code within these genes. Mice get cancer, and they get more cancer when genetically engineered with human cancer-causing genes.

New research published in the scientific journal Nature this week strongly suggests that underappreciated cells of the immune system, called natural killers, play a more important role than previously thought when it comes to fighting viruses that cause chronic disease – including a common herpesvirus called CMV, and perhaps HIV, hepatitis C and many others.

New UCSF Faculty, January 2009

New UCSF Faculty, January 2009