• Question: How did you discover WWOX?

    Asked by georgieholiday to Adam on 23 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Adam Paige

      Adam Paige answered on 23 Nov 2012:


      I was looking at ovarian cancer cells to try and find if there was any missing DNA. We had predicted that if DNA was missing in the cancer then it probably contained a gene that would stop the cancer, and therefore the cancer had grown because this “tumour suppressor” gene was lost.

      I found a part of chromosome 16 that was missing in some ovarian cancer cells called PEO1. I then had to map all the DNA in this region (about 1.5 million bases of DNA), and look for any genes there. Luckily I found the WWOX gene and showed it could indeed stop ovarian cancer cells from growing.

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