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By Melissa Marino
He refers to it as Jekyll and Hyde.
The protein to which Hal Moses, M.D., has dedicated nearly three decades of research – transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-ß) – has two personalities.
In normal cells, TGF-ß’s beneficial “Dr. Jekyll” persona inhibits cell growth and suppresses tumor formation. But sometime during the development of cancer, the protein’s good side is replaced by its more sinister tumor-promoting “Mr. Hyde” personality.
And like the good Dr. Jekyll’s transformation into the depraved Mr. Hyde, TGF-ß’s role reversal also requires a mysterious set of biological “potions.”
These features have made TGF-ß and its large molecular family promising targets for cancer therapy. But even now, some 30 years after it was first identified, TGF-ß still withholds many of its secrets.
Moses, the founding director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and the current director of the T.J. Martell Foundation’s Frances Williams Preston Laboratories, has made it his life’s work to solve the riddle of TGF-ß function, in hopes of finding new ways to treat cancer.
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