Sep 22, 2010 - Claremont, CA -

The undergraduate research of Harvey Mudd College alumni Diana Tran ’09 and Terence Wong ’09 and current HMC student Alicia Schep ’10 was highlighted in the DNA & Cell Biology Journal. With Associate Professor of Biology Robert A. Drewell as advisor, the researchers identified a gene region that is highly conserved among mammalian species that may play an important role in regulating telomerase action.

Telomerase is an enzyme essential to the maintenance of specialized DNA sequences at the tips (or telomeres) of chromosomes.  Regulation of the gene encoding for this enzyme is critical in human cells, as loss of the sequences at telomeres is associated with aging and in 90 percent of cancers the gene is incorrectly expressed.

Their paper, entitled “Characterization of an Ultra-Conserved Putative cis-Regulatory Module at the Mammalian Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase Gene,” can be viewed in the online publication.