Biology Professor's Research May Help Unravel Mysteries of Cancer
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
The ropey things are protein molecules and Hoff explores how their shape changes.
The studies are more than an academic assignment for the associate professor of microbiology
and molecular genetics at Oklahoma State University.
Hoff’s research may hold the key to a range of diseases including cancer.
Individual molecules must be perfectly formed to keep the body alive. Hoff takes an
in-depth look at what happens when they aren’t perfect. His dedication to the deformed
strings of amino acids – found in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases – recently
captured the attention of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology.
The Center selected 30 health-research projects to receive $4 million over a three-year
period. Hoff will use his $135,000-award to investigate how deformations in individual
protein molecules help the cell’s internal communication processes.
The correct functioning of the proteins is essential to human life. Hoff’s protein-folding
experiments explore individual molecular paths in signaling proteins. When signaling
pathways go awry a range of diseases can result, including cancer.
Hoff and his students spend hours in a lab tucked away on the fourth floor of Life
Sciences East, a historic classroom building built in the 1930s. They peer into petri
dishes and hunker over microscopes and spectrophotometers – an instrument that determines
the intensity of various wavelengths in a spectrum of light.
The biologists look at skirmy little things most of us can’t see, much less imagine.
It’s minute work with big impacts.
The Biophysical Society calls the manipulation of single molecules “perhaps the most
exciting development in biophysical technique in recent times.”
Hoff agrees. “Single molecular science, particularly single molecule manipulation,
is developing into a major industry.”
The field remains largely untapped in Oklahoma, Hoff says. He intends to change that.
To learn more about OSU’s microbiology program, visit http://microbiology.okstate.edu .
To read about research projects within the College of Arts and Sciences, visit http://asresearch.okstate.edu