A research shortcut from a common cold virus to human cancer

✍ Scribed by Ed Harlow

• Book ID: 102651604
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 757 KB
• Volume: 78
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0142(19960801)78:3<558::aid-cncr26>3.0.co;2-x

✦ Synopsis

o the outsider it seems counter-intuitive that serendipity could T play an important role in scientific discovery. Many see scientific research as a slow and steady march to an ever-clearer picture of our natural world. At some future time, it may be true that many aspects of biology will appear as a continuous spectrum, obviously with many different textures, but one in which common themes and issues unite different disciplines. But in all earlier stages of this knowledge acquisition process, there are startling moments when new results unite disparate disciplines in unexpected ways. These knitting events often enhance knowledge in both fields in unexpected ways. A recent example of this knitting process comes from the world of adenovirus research. Adenovirus is a simple human DNA virus that is most often associated with an inapparent infection or, in one of its more severe guises, as a nasty version of the common cold. Although this virus does not pose a major human health problem, studies of adenovirus provided the clues that led to major advances in the study of a common human cancer gene, the retinoblastoma gene.