Scientists were surprised to find smilies on tumors created in the lab from cancer proteins.
Professor Beric Henderson and colleagues at the Westmead Millennium Medical Research Institute (Australia) conducted a study to decode the activity of beta-catenin protein. This protein causes cancer by moving into the cell nucleus and activating the gene, to turn normal cells into cancer cells.
Smilies on the tumor
The team created cancer-causing proteins 12 years ago to find out how they develop into tumors in the human body. However, they were surprised to see a smiley face appear during tumor development.
'We have never seen such a strange thing before , ' said Professor Beric Henderson on the Daily Mail . 'Everyone in the lab was surprised to see a smiley face on the tumor'.
The members of the research team reacted very differently to witnessing this strange thing. Professor Henderson said: 'There are many different ways of looking at this smiley. You might think that face is smiling at us, but I think it's challenging us. '
Currently, the team continues to monitor tumor growth and studies how cancer proteins invade the cell nucleus, in order to find a way to prevent it.
