Researcher says illnesses stem from mitochondria......

[Guest guest]

Thought ya'll might find this interesting.

Steph

Researcher says cancers, other illnesses stem from structures that

provide

cells energy

BY MAYRAV SAAR

The Orange County Register

SANTA ANA, Calif. - (KRT) - Doug Wallace's pants are too big.

They're held

up by suspenders that peek out from beneath his oversized jacket. His

hair

is too

long, falling on top of his too-big glasses. He is not a large man,

but

his

gestures

are so grand, his charisma so great, he seems to fill the big space

he's

created.

What he's saying right now is pretty odd, pretty fringe. But

Wallace

is

used to being fringe. He's made a career out of the fringe.

If he's right, Wallace could change the way we understand,

prevent

and treat

cancer. His work has the potential to slow or stop Alzheimer's

disease

and

Parkinson's.

If he's wrong, Wallace would have spent 30 years studying tiny

structures

at the outer edges of cells that do little more than serve as the

catering

service

to the nucleus.

But he's pretty sure he's right.

" I think the world is on the wrong track, " said Wallace, 58, a

self-described missionary of mitochondrial DNA research.

The room full of scientists and students at UC San Diego

consider

him with

genuine interest. But if this is Wallace's revival tent, it's not

clear

how

many

converts he has.

For nearly two hours, the UC Irvine professor tells the crowd

that

the genes

inside a mitochondrion are the real predictors of disease, as opposed

to the

nuclear

DNA that most researchers evaluate. Whether a person is predisposed to

develop Alzheimer's

disease or Parkinson's or other age-related ailments, as long as that

mitochondria

is healthy, we'll stay healthy.

Hands shoot up after his lecture. The assembled scientists and

medical students

at UCSD want to know the particulars about what the small man with

the

big

ideas

has been talking about.

Does mitochondrial damage accumulate in human eggs? Is each

generation getting

sicker? How does this play out in a clinical setting?

After a handful of questions, Immo Scheffler takes the stage.

Scheffler,

a professor of biology at UC San Diego who has also studied

mitochondrial

mutations,

invited Wallace to speak. He'll say later that the lecture was

interesting,

but

not entirely convincing. Now, though, he tells the crowd that Wallace

can

only take

only one more question before being whisked off to prepare for a

second

lecture

later that evening.

" Oh! I love it! " Wallace says, like a kid begging to stay

longer

at a friend's house. " Anytime I can proselytize about the

mitochondria,

I'll

do it! "

And he does do it. In disease research, in biological

evolution, in

anthropology.

There are few places Wallace hasn't been able to find the magic of the

mitochondria.

In each of these fields Wallace is regarded like the

mitochondria he

studies:

A powerhouse whose work is either inordinately important or not much

more

than interesting,

depending on whom you ask.

There are, after all, only 37 genes in the mitochondria,

which

isn't

much.

The nucleus has 20,000 genes. That's 20,000 genes that could mutate

and

cause a

cell to die or run amok with cancer.

If the nucleus has 20,000 genes, it's where scientists should

be

looking

to find the causes - and it is hoped cures - to every human disease.

Except it's not. Or, at least, it's not to Wallace.

It's quite obvious to Wallace: The mitochondria work like

power

plants.

The nucleus might be the center of the city, but the power plants,

operating

outside,

allow the city to run. If the blueprints are sound and the

contractors

built

them

well, all will be fine.

But if the contractors were lazy or sloppy, the power plants

would

spew

smoke into the air, sputter and fail. The city would go dark, and all

would

collapse

into chaos.

Wallace gives this analogy, speaking with such certainty you

come

away believing

he's either completely right or completely crazy. He knows that he

gives off

those

two impressions. But, again, he's pretty sure he's right.

And if the majority never sees it his way? Well, Wallace and

his

wife, Betty,

57, are Unitarians, so Betty says they're used to being on the

fringe.

Their

son,

, has high-functioning autism. And when their daughter, ,

was

found

to

have a slight learning disability, Betty said she and Doug comforted

her by

saying,

" If you were mainstream, we'd have to do a DNA test to make sure you

were

ours. "

Dr. Sue , dean of UC Irvine's school of biological

sciences,

who helped

recruit Wallace to UCI from Emory University in 2002, describes him

as

" one

of a kind. "

" We're just coming out of that place where everything is

focused on

the structure of DNA. It's all been focused on the nucleus and on

nuclear

genes, "

she said. " So it's so interesting that he didn't follow that

paradigm. "

Wallace began studying the mitochondria in 1970, when, as a

graduate

student

at Yale, he realized nuclear DNA was terrifically boring stuff. Who

cares

about

mapping a gene on a chromosome? He wanted to study something that

actually

did something.

He figured the mitochondria were a good bet: Anything that

produced

90 percent

of the body's energy and contained complicated genes had to be

significant.

Right?

At the time virtually no one studied the importance of

mitochondrial

DNA

mutations.

Now, 30 years later, after Wallace and his colleagues found

mitchondrial

DNA can mutate, after he found those mutations can cause diabetes and

heart

disease,

after tracing mitochondria's thumbprints all over tissue cancers ...

virtually no

one studies the importance of mitochondrial DNA mutations.

Wallace chalks up the spotty interest to mitochondrial DNA

being

more complicated

to study than the much-longer DNA chains of the nucleus. Other

researchers,

though,

say their colleague is simply overstating the significance of his

work.

" Doug rubs some people the wrong way by claiming to have

found

the

solutions when really there are more questions out there we need to

solve, "

Scheffler said. " Until 10 years ago, people definitely ignored

mitochondrial

DNA in human health and disease.

" Now they realize that paying attention to that small DNA is

important,

but the fact that we should pay so much more attention to it is

something I

don't

agree with. "

This could change.

When UCI hired Wallace, it started the Center for Molecular

and

Mitochondrial

Medicine and Genetics and named him director. His research is cited in

fields as

far-flung as anthropology and evolutionary biology. A recent study of

his,

published

in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month,

shows a

link

between mitochondrial DNA mutations and prostate cancer. He's using

that

link now

to test non-toxic drugs to kill prostate cancer in mice.

" People generally agree that he is a world leader in

mitochondrial

DNA issues, " said Bill , dean of graduate studies at

UCI. " Should

that field at some point, be considered for a Nobel Prize, he'll be

right in

the

center of it. "

The center? What an odd place for Wallace to be.

[Guest guest]

Thought ya'll might find this interesting.

Steph

Researcher says cancers, other illnesses stem from structures that

provide

cells energy

BY MAYRAV SAAR

The Orange County Register

SANTA ANA, Calif. - (KRT) - Doug Wallace's pants are too big.

They're held

up by suspenders that peek out from beneath his oversized jacket. His

hair

is too

long, falling on top of his too-big glasses. He is not a large man,

but

his

gestures

are so grand, his charisma so great, he seems to fill the big space

he's

created.

What he's saying right now is pretty odd, pretty fringe. But

Wallace

is

used to being fringe. He's made a career out of the fringe.

If he's right, Wallace could change the way we understand,

prevent

and treat

cancer. His work has the potential to slow or stop Alzheimer's

disease

and

Parkinson's.

If he's wrong, Wallace would have spent 30 years studying tiny

structures

at the outer edges of cells that do little more than serve as the

catering

service

to the nucleus.

But he's pretty sure he's right.

" I think the world is on the wrong track, " said Wallace, 58, a

self-described missionary of mitochondrial DNA research.

The room full of scientists and students at UC San Diego

consider

him with

genuine interest. But if this is Wallace's revival tent, it's not

clear

how

many

converts he has.

For nearly two hours, the UC Irvine professor tells the crowd

that

the genes

inside a mitochondrion are the real predictors of disease, as opposed

to the

nuclear

DNA that most researchers evaluate. Whether a person is predisposed to

develop Alzheimer's

disease or Parkinson's or other age-related ailments, as long as that

mitochondria

is healthy, we'll stay healthy.

Hands shoot up after his lecture. The assembled scientists and

medical students

at UCSD want to know the particulars about what the small man with

the

big

ideas

has been talking about.

Does mitochondrial damage accumulate in human eggs? Is each

generation getting

sicker? How does this play out in a clinical setting?

After a handful of questions, Immo Scheffler takes the stage.

Scheffler,

a professor of biology at UC San Diego who has also studied

mitochondrial

mutations,

invited Wallace to speak. He'll say later that the lecture was

interesting,

but

not entirely convincing. Now, though, he tells the crowd that Wallace

can

only take

only one more question before being whisked off to prepare for a

second

lecture

later that evening.

" Oh! I love it! " Wallace says, like a kid begging to stay

longer

at a friend's house. " Anytime I can proselytize about the

mitochondria,

I'll

do it! "

And he does do it. In disease research, in biological

evolution, in

anthropology.

There are few places Wallace hasn't been able to find the magic of the

mitochondria.

In each of these fields Wallace is regarded like the

mitochondria he

studies:

A powerhouse whose work is either inordinately important or not much

more

than interesting,

depending on whom you ask.

There are, after all, only 37 genes in the mitochondria,

which

isn't

much.

The nucleus has 20,000 genes. That's 20,000 genes that could mutate

and

cause a

cell to die or run amok with cancer.

If the nucleus has 20,000 genes, it's where scientists should

be

looking

to find the causes - and it is hoped cures - to every human disease.

Except it's not. Or, at least, it's not to Wallace.

It's quite obvious to Wallace: The mitochondria work like

power

plants.

The nucleus might be the center of the city, but the power plants,

operating

outside,

allow the city to run. If the blueprints are sound and the

contractors

built

them

well, all will be fine.

But if the contractors were lazy or sloppy, the power plants

would

spew

smoke into the air, sputter and fail. The city would go dark, and all

would

collapse

into chaos.

Wallace gives this analogy, speaking with such certainty you

come

away believing

he's either completely right or completely crazy. He knows that he

gives off

those

two impressions. But, again, he's pretty sure he's right.

And if the majority never sees it his way? Well, Wallace and

his

wife, Betty,

57, are Unitarians, so Betty says they're used to being on the

fringe.

Their

son,

, has high-functioning autism. And when their daughter, ,

was

found

to

have a slight learning disability, Betty said she and Doug comforted

her by

saying,

" If you were mainstream, we'd have to do a DNA test to make sure you

were

ours. "

Dr. Sue , dean of UC Irvine's school of biological

sciences,

who helped

recruit Wallace to UCI from Emory University in 2002, describes him

as

" one

of a kind. "

" We're just coming out of that place where everything is

focused on

the structure of DNA. It's all been focused on the nucleus and on

nuclear

genes, "

she said. " So it's so interesting that he didn't follow that

paradigm. "

Wallace began studying the mitochondria in 1970, when, as a

graduate

student

at Yale, he realized nuclear DNA was terrifically boring stuff. Who

cares

about

mapping a gene on a chromosome? He wanted to study something that

actually

did something.

He figured the mitochondria were a good bet: Anything that

produced

90 percent

of the body's energy and contained complicated genes had to be

significant.

Right?

At the time virtually no one studied the importance of

mitochondrial

DNA

mutations.

Now, 30 years later, after Wallace and his colleagues found

mitchondrial

DNA can mutate, after he found those mutations can cause diabetes and

heart

disease,

after tracing mitochondria's thumbprints all over tissue cancers ...

virtually no

one studies the importance of mitochondrial DNA mutations.

Wallace chalks up the spotty interest to mitochondrial DNA

being

more complicated

to study than the much-longer DNA chains of the nucleus. Other

researchers,

though,

say their colleague is simply overstating the significance of his

work.

" Doug rubs some people the wrong way by claiming to have

found

the

solutions when really there are more questions out there we need to

solve, "

Scheffler said. " Until 10 years ago, people definitely ignored

mitochondrial

DNA in human health and disease.

" Now they realize that paying attention to that small DNA is

important,

but the fact that we should pay so much more attention to it is

something I

don't

agree with. "

This could change.

When UCI hired Wallace, it started the Center for Molecular

and

Mitochondrial

Medicine and Genetics and named him director. His research is cited in

fields as

far-flung as anthropology and evolutionary biology. A recent study of

his,

published

in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month,

shows a

link

between mitochondrial DNA mutations and prostate cancer. He's using

that

link now

to test non-toxic drugs to kill prostate cancer in mice.

" People generally agree that he is a world leader in

mitochondrial

DNA issues, " said Bill , dean of graduate studies at

UCI. " Should

that field at some point, be considered for a Nobel Prize, he'll be

right in

the

center of it. "

The center? What an odd place for Wallace to be.

[Guest guest]

Thanks for posting this, Steph. Can you tell me the date this appeared in the Register?

Thanks,

Thought ya'll might find this interesting.

Steph

Researcher says cancers, other illnesses stem from structures that

provide

cells energy

BY MAYRAV SAAR

The Orange County Register

[Guest guest]

Thanks for posting this, Steph. Can you tell me the date this appeared in the Register?

Thanks,

Thought ya'll might find this interesting.

Steph

Researcher says cancers, other illnesses stem from structures that

provide

cells energy

BY MAYRAV SAAR

The Orange County Register