Thursday, December 16, 2010

Luciferase Genes

Oh Lord!!

What's worse, the fact that I remember the story behind luciferase (I love it like a little boy loves fireworks. Or rather I love that they discovered or isolated it, and for the same little boy reason. I do also remember reading about the process of discovery years ago, but I can't find a good accounting of the fascinating process...stay away from that Britannica site, never thought I would say that...ugh) or the notion that the cancerous cells are the gateway to understanding the clock on the matter or that fact that for the third or fourth night I am posting this past 1 a.m. and I am miserable?

"To find the drug, researchers led by Tsuyoshi Hirota attached luciferase genes to some human bone cancer cells so the cells glowed in response to changes in the cell’s circadian rhythms. Then a genetic research robot screened more than 120,000 potential molecular compounds to see which ones had an effect on those rhythms. The robot singled out the most promising compounds for further study. "

(Here is the URL, I have been trying to post them because I have found that over years links get funky and the old URL can be a clue when researching:

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-12/new-compound-can-reset-your-biological-clock-could-someday-cure-jet-lag)

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