West Lafayette, Ind. -- Purdue University researcher Xiaoqi Liu says he has discovered the absence of certain proteins needed for proper cell duplication can lead to cancer.
Liu, an assistant professor of biochemistry, determined cytoplasmic linker protein-170 plays a major role in proper cell duplication and DNA distribution. When the protein is removed, cell duplicates lack entire copies of DNA and can become cancerous.
"DNA has to be equally distributed from a mother cell to its daughter cells. If the cells are not identical to the mother cell, they become cancer," Liu said.
