How did molecular biology make a big impact in this field?
The fact is that the origins of cancer lie in genes. Another fact is that before about 1977-78 we couldn’t really work with those genes because we didn’t have the tools for isolating specific human genes-plucking them out of complex cellular genomes. The advent of molecular gene cloning came just at the right time. It came just when we needed to begin to pull these genes out of cancer cell genomes and study them, isolate them, and be able to understand their sequences and how they operated. Without the revolution in gene cloning, we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are today. We would still be stuck in the quagmire that surrounded us in the mid-1970s. Could you tell me the story about the proto-oncogenes? In 1975-76, Harold Varmis and Mike Bishop in their laboratory isolated a very interesting cancer-causing gene-an oncogene from a chicken virus-that caused cancer in chickens. They thought that this gene was specific for the cancer-causing virus, but then they looked further and they
