DINO: Good news

Linda and Carolyn in Vancouver

I was lucky to have been along

According to the Tea Party, guys like John McCain are RINOs.  This translates as Republican In Name Only.  John – and many other relatively conservative public figures – acquire this designation because they are willing to compromise on occasion, to get things done.  Well, this blog is about DINOs.  These are not about Democrats In Name Only, as you might deduce.  (How about Bill Clinton in the 1990s, compromising on welfare reform and free trade?)  No, as used here, DINO is an RNA molecule that plays a crucial role in the biochemical cascade that enables the tumor-suppressor protein p53 to do its job.  In over half of all cancers, p53 is disabled.  Fooling around with the DINO (Damage Induced NOncoding) RNA, Stanford researchers have determined that p53 can be brought back from the dead and induced to do its job.  Early times, of course, but there is reason to hope.  In the immediate future many mice will die and many grant applications will be submitted, but I am optimistic.

https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2016/dino-p53?cid=eb_govdel