Basic Sciences Division finding ranks in top 100 scientific stories of the year in Discover magazine

Brief
January 22, 2004

A Basic Sciences Division study of baker's yeast that sheds light on why aging is the greatest cancer-risk factor in humans was named one of the top 100 science stories of 2003 by Discover magazine in its January 2004 issue.

Graduate student Michael McMurray and Dr. Dan Gottschling found striking similarities between humans and simple baker's yeast with regard to the changes their genes undergo as they grow older. Although yeast don't get cancer, the researchers found that they do develop one of the major hallmarks of malignancy, a condition called genetic instability. Their work suggests that the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a simple, single-celled organism, may be an ideal model for understanding the complexities of age-related cancer development in humans.

The findings were published in the Sept. 26 issue of Science.

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