| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,640,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥840,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Cancer is caused by DNA changes within cells. p53 is called the guardian of the genome, because it plays a key role in preventing the changes . About half of p53 in human cancers is either lost or mutated, which results in losing the function. The study aimed to observe how p53 mutants lose p53 original function by using microscopic laser raman spectroscopy. Raman spectroscopy is an analytical technique to observe scattered photons from a laser beam into the molecules. The frequency of the scattered photons has information on vibrational motions of atoms in molecules and is sensitive to molecular conformation and environment. The spectroscopy can be applied to in-vivo observation. p53 normal proteins have one zinc ion. We observed that the scattered photons attributed to Zn disappear in the spectra of mutants near the zinc binding site, and that loss of zinc induces the disruption of the normal structure .
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