Pat, that was quite a challenge....I am NOT a molecular geneticist..but...
First, a couple general comments. The article from the drug company mentions that they have applied it to head/neck cancer, but that this isn't an "economically viable" condition to support the complete development of the new therapy. The old "orphan drug" issue again...but scary when you think of the number of people with head/neck cancer!
Next, I really found the 1992 speech by Maxine Singer interesting. She was a fantastic scientist, and a real inspiration to all women scientists, and a friend of my boss at NIH!
Basically, to try to translate, this ras gene controlls the power supply for the making of a very important regulatory protein. (Maybe some of the more biochemically oriented of us remember learning about ATP in the cells where ATP loses one phophate to become ADP and the energy in the chemical bond that is released fuels the cell machinery...in the nucleus where the DNA is, GTP --GDP performs the same function.) So, if you disrupt the ras gene, you unplug the energy supply to the nucleus of the cell, and turn off the lights!!
Clear as mud?
