You are a researcher at a small biotech company and your company has just obtain

Question

You are a researcher at a small biotech company and your company has just obtained the license for use of a human GENOMIC DNA fragment putatively encoding a potentially novel protein, which is thought to regulate p53, the known tumor supressor protein. The scientists who originally cloned this GENE fragment HDM5 "claim" that HDM5 shares 90% DNA sequence homology with one of the HDM2 genes (refer to the review Levine & Oren, 2009). They propose that HDM5 may have HDM2-like properties and may be involved in regulating cell proliferation, and thus a good target to potentially develop as a cancer therapy. Your company has asked you to characterize the gene and gene products, as well as to provide an opinion as to its potential human therapeutic uses.

1. Before proceeding, you wish to know whether this gene is actually expressed in humans (your target market for therapeutic development).

a. Describe, in detail, 2 efficient experimental approaches to answer this question.

b. Discuss whether your proposed methods measure synthesis or accumulation of the product.

Explanation / Answer

Answers a. and b.

mRNA of HDM2 formed in the body can be analyzed using Northern blots and SAGE.

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