Cervical Cancer Advice!
A Korean biofirm has developed technology for gene analysis of the HPV virus, a progenitor to cervical cancer, the no. 2 cause of death for women.
Drs. Kim Soo-ok and Hong Sun-pyo at GeneMatrix on Tuesday said they developed new technology to identify the human papillomavirus virus gene for cervical cancer. The technology is known as laser-based spectrometry assay. Their findings were published in the September issue of Nature Protocols, a sister magazine of Nature.
Up until recently, researchers had diagnosed viruses by checking if specific virus genes fit together, like the teeth of a zip. But in some cases this technique had led to misdiagnoses, since even disparate genes sometimes fit together.
Hong said, “Kinds of virus genes are determined by DNA sequences. As each genetic base has different mass, it’s possible to identify genes if we can measure their mass.” The research team said their equipment has the world’s best ability to identify all of the 74 virus gene types found in the human body.
