Neighborhood loops

Specialized loop regions in chromosomes hold the keys to why and how some proto-oncogenes get activated to cause cancer, according to a group at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. The findings could provide new therapeutic targets for multiple cancers and other genetically triggered diseases.

"It's become very clear in just the last couple of years that chromosome structures can play very important roles in gene control," said Richard Young, the principal investigator on the study, who is a faculty member at the Whitehead, and a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)...