Genome Chapter Summary: Death

John Cruz
Mod 3

The chapter that I was chose to write about chromosome 17 which is death. My
initial thought about this chapter is that it will explain more about death,
however, while I was reading I found out that it also talks about cancer. The
chapter mainly talks about the history of cancer and some of the major discoveries
that people have uncovered throughout the past. My thoughts on cancer is that it is
a multi-genetic disease that can spread overtime as it grows and it also affected
many individuals like my family.
The chapter first starts off by saying that we are losing brain cells every day at
a rapid pace and if we didn’t, our brains would not be able to function well. One
example that was given by Ridley was that “Each side of the visual cortex is
connected to one half of the input from both eyes” (231, Ridley) which means that
both sides of our brain have different roles. For instance, if the left side of the
brain slows down it’s pace, it also affects the performance of the left side of the
eye and the rest of our body parts that is connected to it. [a]It also talks about
how some cells go through a protocol that helps them do their duties. If they are
not able to do their job anymore then they would commit suicide for the greater
good of the body. An example that was given in the book was the gene ced-9. Ced-9
is a gene that kills off cells that are not needed in the body.

Peyton Rous was one of the scientist that was mentioned in this chapter. His
research was of him proving that a chicken who had the cancer called sarcoma could
be passed down to another chicken that hasn’t been affected by the disease. His
research was mostly ignored due to lack of evidence. However, the people’s opinion
changed when a whole string of animal cancer virus were discovered in the 1960’s.
He later received a Nobel prize for the recognition of his work. Later on, Rous’
research about the sarcoma virus was tested with a gene-sequencer that revealed to
carry a special type of cancer-causing gene which was also known as src. Soon after
this was discovered, they realized that this is not a viral gene because we all
have it in our genes.
Another one of the major experiments from the chapter was the discovery of TP53.
TP53[b] is a gene that detects abnormal behaviour in a cell and issues an
instruction to different genes to dismantle the cell from the inside in other words
to commit suicide. The gene was first discovered in 1979 by David Lana in Dundee,
Scotland. The experiment that he did was a test to see if TP53 was a tumour
suppressor. He was joined by another scientist named Peter Hall. They were
basically guinea pig for the purpose of the experiment that they were conducting.
“Hall repeatedly scarred a small part of his arm with radiation and Lane took
biopsies over the succeeding two weeks” (Ridley, 235). The overall project showed a
dramatic rise levels of the P53, the protein manufactured from TP53, following the
radiation damage, claim evidence that the gene responded to cancer-causing damage.
After the experiment Lana began to develop P53 as a possible cure. He also created
P53 for the first human volunteers to try out as test while the book was being
made. Ridley states that, “It is 1,179 ‘letters’ , png, and encodes the recipe for
a simple protein, p53, that is normally rapidly digested by another enzymes so that
it has a half-life of only twenty minutes” (Ridley, 237). Ridley goes on to more
detail about what TP53 is and what it encodes for.
Later on into the last pages of the chapter, Ridley talks about what p53 does to
cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy. It was also given the
nickname ‘Guardian of the Genome’ or ‘Guardian Angel of the Genome’ because of what
the gene did to kill of the cancer cells. Ridley states that, “All therapeutic
cancer treatment works only because it induces apoptosis by alerting P53 and its
colleagues” (Ridley, 238). Ridley basically talks about what the cancer treatment
do and how it works. Then he talks about how people used to think that the
treatments would work because it would be damaging their DNA as the dividing cells
are being killed off. A scientist named Scott Lowe basically makes it clear on what
the treatment does. The author mentions in the book that “The DNA damage is just
sufficient to alert P53, which tells the cells to commit suicide.” He then says
that the treatment is like a vaccination where it works by helping the body help
itself.
Overall the chapter to this book was quite interesting and it has helped me gain
knowledge about cancer since it is connected to the presentation that I am
currently working on. There was one part of the chapter that I found interesting
which was the fact that cells sacrifice themselves for greater good of the body,
which means if they are not able to do their proper role as a cell then they would
commit suicide, this was one thing that I didn’t really know happened until I read
this chapter.[c]

[a]not exactly...
[b]I think just p53 right?
[c]Excellent paper John. Well written and comprehensive with regards to the
experiments discussed int the chapter.