Researchers at the Telethon Dulbecco Institute at Palermo University said Friday they have discovered and observed the "zapper" or "remote control" molecule that "lights up" DNA genes, allowing cells to reproduce while keeping their characteristics intact.
The zapper programmes cells to become a particular type of tissue and make them capable of carrying out specific functions.
The research, spearheaded by a returning scientist who formerly had joined the Italian brain drain exodus to the USA, Davide Corona, was financed by Telethon and published on the scientific review Plos Genetics.
It opens up prosepcts for a better knowledge of and the cure of rare genetic illnesses and some forms of cancer. Corona and his team, composed of Maria Cristina Onorati and Walter Arancio, discovered that a specific molecular gene, the non codifying RNA, is capable of guiding the development of cells.
"The malfunctioning of the biological mechanism that we have observed is at the basis of different rare genetic diseases and some forms of cancer," Corona said.
"One of the most interesting developments of this discovery, even if it is a long term prospect, is the possibility of intervening in the activity of a cell that doesn't function as it ought -- not only imposing a cell of one tissue to to produce one of another, if necessary, but for example, to make a tumorous cell to generate a healthy one".
Corona previously worked first in Germany at the European molecular biology Laboratory at Heidelberg and then in the USA at the University of California, returning to Italy in 2004 thanks to the Dulbecco Telethon Institute, which finances brilliant Italian researchers to pursue their interests in Italian institutions of their choice, and thanks also to the Armenise-Harvard Foundation.
Corona chose to work at the University of Palermo where he is professor of genetics.
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