DNA Surrounding EGFR Aids Cancer

Teams at the University of California San Diego 

School of Medicine and Case Western Reserve University 

School of Medicine found that extra DNA allows cancer 

cell's to live. They also found that if two tumor types are 

caused by the same gene, the extra DNA could be different. 

These teams used the cancer causing gene EGFR,  which

is part in glioblastoma (brain and other cancers). Mass 

amounts of this gene make circular DNA. The extra DNA 

around the EGFR samples which found "20 to 50 enhancers 

and other regulatory elements (Science Daily)." After testing

the elements by turning them off, they found that almost all 

of them helped the tumor grow in size. After finding this

information, they looked into other cancer types, and 

found similar results.

I believe that research and experiments like this are extremely important. I think cancer is way more common than it should be, and information such as these will be able to aid in the fight against cancer.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191121141354.htm

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2017/8045859/

Ancient Organs

Researchers may have discovered the 700 million year old mutation that allowed for the production of lungs, forelimbs, and inner ear.  In an article found on Science Daily, many organs in vertebrates have been linked back to multiple mutations.  The regulatory protein called ESRP acts as a molecular switch to splice and rejoin genes, they are also involved with morphogenesis and cell to cell interactions which generate different protein variants.  At first the evolutionary significance of these genes were not known, however until recently it is thought that this group of regulatory proteins mutated and began to create the proteins assigned for the lungs and other organs specific to the vertebrates.
This article is interesting because it shows what could have caused the mutation resulting in the coding for the inner organs.  The evolutionary significance for the ESRP would make sense for it to be important for our history but there had to have been something else alongside this mutation to correct the formation and placement over time for the organs such as the lungs.