Part of what makes cancer so dangerous is that cancerous cells do not “age” towards death. Healthy cells are genetically coded to die naturally, in an essential process called apoptosis; cancerous cells do not have this code.

But Israeli researchers at Hebrew University have made a breakthrough discovery for the way we understand cancer: a protein that helps to delay cell death. With the discovery of this protein, scientists can better learn about and understand the process of cell death. This could lead to cancer treatments which target cancer cells to “turn on” the genetic coding for apoptosis as well as treatments for dementia diseases which “turn off” the cell death process.

The research team included Hebrew University graduate student Chen Hener-Katz, Hebrew University Professor Assaf Friedler, and Weizmann Institute Professor Atan Gross. Their findings were published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry under the title, ”Molecular Basis of the Interaction between Proapoptotic Truncated BID (tBID) Protein and Mitochondrial Carrier Homologue 2 (MTCH2) Protein.”

How do you think this Israeli discovery will affect the future?