By Inder M. Verma
ESI Special Topics,
December 2003
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/fbp/2003/december03-InderMVerna.html
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Inder M.
Verma answers a
few questions about this month's fast breaking paper in the field of
Immunology.
From
•>>December 2003
Field:
Immunology
Article Title:
NFkß regulation in the immune system
Authors: Li, QT;Verma, IM
Journal: NAT REV IMMUNOL
Volume: 2
Page: 725-734
Year: OCT 2002
* Salk Inst Biol Studies, Genet Lab, 10010 N Torrey Pines Rd, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA.
* Salk Inst Biol Studies, Genet Lab, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA.
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 Why
do you think your paper is highly cited?
It describes the current status of the NFkß field and
therefore investigators find it a useful one-stop place.
Does
it describe a new discovery or a new methodology that's useful to
others?
No, but it describes how NFkß signaling pathway is induced
in response to a very wide variety of external signals.
Could
you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?
When one is infected by a pathogen (virus, bacteria, fungi),
the body immediately mounts an immune response called innate
immunity. The NFkß family of proteins is essential to turn on
genes which fight infection. Once infected, the body has to
mount an immune response to get rid of the parasite. It mounts
an adaptive immune challenge, also crucially dependent on NFkß
pathway. It is also mutated in many cancers.
How
did you become involved in this research?
My laboratory was working on oncogenes as transcription
factors, so it was natural for us to study NFkß proteins
because they are transcription factors which are normally
ensconced in the cytoplasm in association with an inhibitory
protein, Ikß. We were interested in finding out precisely how
NFkß is activated.
Inder M. Verma
Professor of Biology
The Salk Institute
Laboratory of Genetics
La Jolla, CA, USA
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ESI Special Topics,
December 2003
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/fbp/2003/december03-InderMVerna.html
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