Public Release:  Genetic pathway can slow spread of ovarian
cancer  University of Adelaide  University of Adelaide research
into the origins of ovarian cancer has led to the discovery of a
genetic pathway that could slow the spread of the cancer.  The
discovery is in part due to research into the genetics of
humans' most distant mammalian relative, the platypus.  In a
paper published today in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers
characterize a genetic pathway - involving piRNA genes - that is
turned on in ovarian cancer.  "This pathway is important for the
development of the ovaries in drosophila flies but little is
known about its role in the mammalian ovary," says lead author
Associate Professor Frank Grützner, Genetics Lecturer and ARC
Research Fellow with the University of Adelaide's Robinson
Research Institute and the School of Molecular and Biomedical
Science.  "We previously found that these genes are active in
cells supporting oocyte (egg cell) development in platypus, mice
and humans, just like in flies