9403368 Silver This award is under the International Junior Investigator and Postdoctoral Fellows Program, which enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twelve months of research abroad at research centers of proven excellence. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twelve-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Gail C. Silver to work with Dr. Claude Helene of the Museum National d'Historie Naturelle in Paris, France. This research concerns the stabilization of triple-helical nucleic acids for control of oncogene expression. This is based on the recently investigated possibility of interfering directly with gene expression by targeting deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) with oligonucleotides. The "anti-gene" oligonucleotides bind in a sequence-specific manner in the major groove of the double-stranded target to form a triple helix, also known as a triplex. Cancers are often the result of over expression of certain genes or the expression of mutated genes. These strategies have the potential to be used to inactivate the expression of genes that contribute to cancer development. If the sequence of the oncogene is known, a complementary sequence can be made to bind to that particular gene and thus overcome cell proliferation. Though the potential of triplex technology is hard to assess, there is promise and these experiments will help further understanding by providing a means of stabilizing the triple helix structure. ***
