Monday, July 11, 2005
Life after lectures
The Otago student newspaper Critic runs a recurring news column called "Life after lectures" which profiles interesting research coming out of the University. Last week I was lucky enough to talk to Dr Tony Merriman, a geneticist who has recently published a study proving a link between a gene called PTPN22 and rheumatoid arthritis. The story has been published online at Critic's website so you can check it out there. Here's a little teaser:
The research also explains some of the biology underlying auto-immune diseases. PTPN22 is part of a pathway of genes that stop T-lymphocytes – the “soldier cells” of the immune system – from attacking our own bodies when they don’t have an infection to fight. Merriman describes it in a more colourful way. “I always see T-lymphocytes as young men. When they’re not kept busy fighting infections they get up to trouble. PTPN22 keeps them out of trouble because otherwise they look around and see there’s nothing bacterial to fight so decide to wreck the hotel room they’re living in”.
1 Comments:
That is an interesting article. Does someone in your family suffer from arthritis?
