Comments by James R. Smith, Baylor College of Medicine The major finding described in this paper, says James R. Smith, a professor in the division of molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine and codirector of the Roy M. and Phyllis Gough Huffington Center on Aging there, is "the cloning and identification of genes that inhibit cell proliferation."
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"By micro-injecting RNA from senescent cells into young cells, we knew that [senescent] cells produced proteins that could inhibit DNA synthesis in much greater abundance than young cells," comments Smith. Thus, he explains, "we wanted to identify and clone the genes that synthesized these inhibitory proteins."
In order to pinpoint the genes, Smith says, "Dr. Noda made a cDNA library from senescent human fibroblasts, which he screened by transfecting into young cells," and gauging the DNA inhibitory capacity.
The gene that ...
