January+2013

Continued research on HbA1 here

Inhibition of the Pim1 Oncogene Results in Diminished Visual Function
The above heading is the title to the paper by past graduate student, Francis Raycroft, wrote about the effects of Pim1 (a kinase) in the visual pathway specifically the JAK-STAT pathway. An oncogene is a gene that has the possibility to transform into a malignant tumor but is necessary for vision according to the paper. The abstract begins with discussing the importance of the Jak-stat pathway during maturation of the visual pathway which is 3-5 days post-fertilization (~dpf). During days 3-5, genes in the pathway are up-regulated which stresses their importance in the development of visual function, specifically Pim1. Pim1 was then therefore concluded to play a primary role in vision, the destruction of Pim1 lead to significant diminishment in vision.