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The Salk Institute became one of the first National Cancer Institute-designated basic research cancer centers in the early 1970s. For more than a quarter of a century, Salk investigators have been focusing on a range of critical issues related to the underlying causes of cancer.
Recent Discoveries
- Salk researchers have shown that the hereditary breast cancer gene BRCA1 acts to turn on genes.
- Salk investigators revealed that the human adult brain contains actively dividing cells, raising the possibility that brain tumors are derived from alterations in the normal function of these cells.
- A Salk team found a molecular link that may explain why high-fat diets increase the risk for certain cancers.
- Salk researchers are studying how cells regulate their growth and division, and how mutations in genes that regulate growth lead to cancer.
- Salk scientists are focusing on the genetic basis of the origin and progression of cancer and why tumors become resistant to drugs.
The Salk Institute Cancer Center takes full advantage of our newly acquired knowledge of the human genome. We now know that humans, who have approximately 100 trillion cells in their bodies, may have only twice as many genes as a worm made up of only 1,000 cells.
This astonishing revelation suggests that variation in the coordinated interactions of the protein products of genes-in addition to the information in genes-plays a role in the development and regulation of complex organisms.
For the first time, we also can begin to understand the most subtle intricacies of cell division. It is this process that is most obviously affected in cancer, defined by aberrant regulation of cell division and unrestricted cell growth.