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UNC Lineberger researcher Jack Griffith, PhD, was featured on Science Friday for his groundbreaking microscopy research on telomeres published this spring in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


Jack Griffith, PhD, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, was featured on Science Friday for his lab’s groundbreaking research on telomeres — tiny proteins at the tips of chromosomes.

Griffith and UNC School of Medicine postdoc Taghreed Al-Turki, PhD made the stunning discovery that telomeres contain genetic information to produce two small proteins, one of which they found is elevated in some human cancer cells, as well as cells from patients suffering from telomere-related defects. Previously, scientists did not think telomeres held any relevant biological function.

The Science Friday segment can be heard here.

Griffith and Al-Turki published their research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It was featured here by the UNC School of medicine News Team.

Griffith holds a joint faculty appointment in the UNC Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.