What applications does telomerase have in basic research?
Most immediately, we are developing standard cell reagents that all scientists can share, compare, and do experiments on, as opposed to looking at primary culture of cells, which are always changing because their telomeres shorten over time. We have also introduced telomerase into patient cells with a variety of chromosome instability or genetic diseases. We can immortalize these cells, which may help us discover the nature of the genetic defect. For example, there are genetic cancer susceptibiliy syndromes that present in specific tissues. Even though all cells in these patients have the same genetic lesion, we need to understand why only specific tissue types get cancer. By using telomerase to immortalize cells from these patient we may help clarify some of these issues.
