01.11.2010
“A team of Melbourne and London researchers have shown how a protein called perforin punches holes in, and kills, rogue cells in our bodies. Their discovery of the mechanism of this assassin is published today in the science journal Nature.
“Perforin is our body’s weapon of cleansing and death,” Monash University’s Professor James Whisstock said.
“It breaks into cells that have been hijacked by viruses or turned into cancer cells and allows toxic enzymes in, to destroy the cell from within. Without it our immune system can’t destroy these cells. Now we know how it works, we can start to fine tune it to fight cancer, malaria and diabetes,” he said. [...]
Researchers from Monash University and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, and Birkbeck College in London collaborated on the ten-year study to unravel the molecular structure and function of perforin~the protein responsible. The structure was revealed with the help of the Australian Synchrotron, and with powerful electron microscopes at Birkbeck. [...]
“This work is a dramatic illustration of the importance of the synchrotron,” Professor Whisstock said. “We simply couldn’t have done it without this wonderful facility.” [...]”
Source/article: Monash University News
