Basic Sciences and Molecular Medicine Approaches

To answer the questions "What genes are mutated and what is the role of these genes in causing cancer" laboratory scientists use a variety of molecular and cellular biology techniques. Very often, answering these questions requires that the gene being studied is cloned. Once a gene is cloned, many questions can be asked regarding its function.

• What is the nucleotide sequence of the gene and does it resemble any other genes for which we know the function?
  
  
• When, where (in what cells) and how much is the gene expressed (protein synthesized).
  
  
• What happens if the gene product is overproduced?
  
  
• What happens to a cell or organism if the gene product is made non-functional?
  
  
• With what proteins does the gene product interact?
  
  

A description of cloning, detecting and modifying expression of the gene, eliminating gene function,studying protein interactions, as well as a brief visual and textual glossary covering some fundamentals of cell function is provided.

For examples of what we learned using these types of techniques, go to Molecular Biology of Cancer.

	Fundamentals of Cell Function
	Cloning DNA
	Libraries
	Screening Libraries
	Gene Expression
	Elimination of Gene
	Interactions with Other Proteins