Science, but for normal people

Did you know that every cell in your body has genetic material called DNA that’s like a cell’s instruction manual, that is 200,000 pages long? Dr. Allie McClure is a scientist here on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus who runs a research lab in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics focused on learning all about how cells copy this instruction manual to pass down to the next generation of cells.  

What you may not know is that this is a complex process that takes a lot of preparation and careful timing. Mistakes can cause fatal problems for those receiving this manual, so the cell needs to take this job very seriously. Building upon previous knowledge, Allie’s lab is investigating what happens when things don’t go as planned and how the cell copes. 

Imagine a journalist reporting on the next pandemic who has to read and report all the information accurately and in a timely manner. Misinformation can be deadly, so the journalist must have right skills to understand and communicate their findings correctly to the public. Instead, the information the journalist has is jumbled or difficult to decipher. What do they do? What tools do they need to fix the problem? And how are those tools different or similar to the original ones they used? 

Many cancers start with problems in the instruction manual used by the cell. By asking how the cell deals with this jumbled information, Allie and her team hope to apply their findings to improve our understanding of how cells overcome problems with copying this information. This type of work is the foundation upon which we can build our knowledge of cancerous diseases and how to prevent them.  

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