Grades: 6th – 8th Grade, 9th – 12th Grade

Researchers at the University of Missouri discovered how a cancer-critical enzyme is positioned on cell surfaces and is helping to spread cancer throughout the body.  The breakthrough is an important step toward the development of pharmaceuticals in the fight against cancer. 

Steven Van Doren, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Missouri, is leading this new approach.  His weapons include a computer and a 10 foot tall, 800 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, the most powerful one in the state of Missouri.  Van Doren and his colleagues use it to observe how a specific enzyme affects tumor cells in the human body, helping them to spread.