The yeast which has been used for thousands of years to make beer is providing material for a cancer research study deep inside human genes.
Most people have heard of the human genome, the genetic framework of which we are comprised. What many may not know is that there is a structure inside a gene, called "dNTPs."
What UB biochemist Jennifer Surtees is studying are the levels of dNTPs. Too few and cell change will stall; too many the dividing cell can make mistakes and cause more mutations, including cancer cells.
Surtees says those are often different and they react differently to chemotherapy.
"Chemotherapy stinks. It can be very effective but it can also have these horrible side effects," Surtees said.
"You see people who have lost their hair. They are very ill because the chemotherapy drugs attack all of your cells. It's just that they attack the cancer cells the most."
Surtees is studying that dNTP using yeast because work can go forward rapidly, trying to identify which cancer cells can be attacked by specific cancer drugs because of better understanding of dNTPs.
Yeast mutations can be studied in months although it may be years before the increasing knowledge can lead to human cancer drug tests.
