But even the basics of how p73 works are still unknown. What are the remaining proteins that talk with p73 to tell it to kill? How does it carry out its lethal program?
Medical School researchers are now doing experiments to try to answer these questions. And, with the recent identification of the protein that activates p73, they're already starting to dream about using the protein to help stop the progression of cancer.
Kaelin wants to try to coax cancerous cells to commit suicide by giving them very high levels of the molecule that turns on p53 and p73. No one had thought of doing this before because scientists thought that the cell suicide machinery was broken in cancers. But now it seems that there is an alternative cell suicide machinery that cancer overlooks.
"In your wildest dreams, one approach to treating cancer cells that lack p53 is to reawaken its cousin," Kaelin said.