Collins & Nogales determine structure of human telomerase

Image credit: Janet Iwasa

MCB Professors Kathleen Collins and Eva Nogales have published a new paper in Nature describing the three-dimensional structure of human telomerase, an enzyme that replaces depleted nucleotides back onto telomeres at the ends of chromosomes.

The role of telomerase in aging and cancer has been hypothesized since its discovery here at Berkeley in the 1970s, and the definitive determination of its structure may lead to new drug development.