Most people are somewhat familiar with nuclear energy and the general concept of the cell nucleus. But nuclear speckles? Not so much. According to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Katherine Alexander, that’s to be expected.
“I give talks to scientists—people who study DNA,” Alexander explains. “And often at the end of my talk, someone comes up to me and says, ‘Wow! I didn’t know what a nuclear speckle was.’ And so it’s totally fine that none of you have heard of this, because even people in my field have not.”
However, that could be about to change. Alexander’s recent findings suggest that these “obscure” structures, present in every cell nucleus in your body, could tell us something about kidney cancer. In particular, the nuclear speckle patterns Alexander discovered could one day help doctors determine which kind of cancer treatment will work best for patients diagnosed with this disease. How’s that for obscurity?
Press play for a closer look at “The hidden world inside our cells.” And be sure to sign up for the next installment of Cocktails & Chromosomes as CSHL returns to Industry Lounge in Huntington, NY, on March 27. Associate Professor Jessica Tollkuhn will be there with us to talk about sex hormones in the brain and how they can affect behavior and mental health.