  {"id":180421,"date":"2023-07-18T14:42:36","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T00:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=180421"},"modified":"2023-07-19T12:54:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T22:54:31","slug":"control-cancer-cell-division-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/07\/18\/control-cancer-cell-division-research\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo biochemists seek to control cancer through cell division research"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_180426\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-180426\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hilo-biochemist-cancer.jpeg\" alt=\"Tao and Warecki in their lab\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-180426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hilo-biochemist-cancer.jpeg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hilo-biochemist-cancer-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hilo-biochemist-cancer-130x73.jpeg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-180426\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Li Tao, right, and Brandt Warecki<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Associate Professor of Biology Li Tao  at the <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo<\/a> is doing research into the mechanisms of cell division to find clues for cancer treatment, and has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/scisignal.adh0601\">published his most recent findings in <em>Science Signaling<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The study was conducted primarily by Tao and Brandt Warecki, who holds a joint postdoctoral position between <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo and University of California, Santa Cruz. Warecki is lead author of the study; Tao serves as corresponding author.<\/p>\n<p>Tao is a biochemist and cell biologist with expertise in using a combination of in vitro biochemistry and in vivo cell biology to understand the regulation of cell division, providing insights into the fundamental mechanism to control the growth of cancer cells.<\/p>\n<p>The recently published findings from Tao\u2019s lab highlight that centralspindlin, a motor complex implicated in cell division, plays a pivotal role in dictating cytokinesis (cell division) by transporting essential components required to initiate this process.<\/p>\n<h2>Finding clues for cancer treatment<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_180427\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-180427\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hilo-biochemist-cancer-first-300x169.jpeg\" alt=\"Cell division experiment\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-180427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hilo-biochemist-cancer-first-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hilo-biochemist-cancer-first-130x73.jpeg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hilo-biochemist-cancer-first.jpeg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-180427\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a 2016 study, Li Tao\u2019s research team used molecular cloning to engineer new kinesin constructs. (Photo credit: Claudia Hagan, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Tao says his research into the mechanisms of cell division will provide clues for cancer treatment.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Abnormal cell division causes cancer,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;Understanding the mechanism of cell division and its control has thus become a key to find cures for cancer.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Tao\u2019s ultimate goal is to have a greater understanding of how mitotic motors regulate cell division, which will help find an effective way to cure cancer.<\/p>\n<p>Tao believes the success of this mission depends on collaboration among peers.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;In my opinion, solving problems on cell division should be teamwork with experts from various fields,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>For the full story visit <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/chancellor\/stories\/2023\/07\/17\/li-tao-new-clue-cancer-treatment\/\"><em><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Susan Enright<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biochemist Li Tao and Brant Warecki published their recent findings in <em>Science Signaling<\/em> journal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[254,158,14,907],"class_list":["post-180421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-biology","tag-publication","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-hilo-stories","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180421"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180507,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180421\/revisions\/180507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}