Alexander Varshavsky

Alexander Varshavsky is a Russian-American biochemist, noted for his discovery of the N-end rule of ubiquitination. He is currently researching at Caltech.

Alexander Varshavsky provided an original approach to killing cancer cells, proffered the idea of a targeted molecular device that could enter a cell, examine it for DNA deletions specific to cancer and killing it if it meets the right profile. "(It) involves, in a nutshell, the finding of a genuine Achilles Heel of cancer cells, i.e., their potentially vulnerable feature that won't change during tumor progression," said Varshavsky.

The approach termed deletion-specific targeting (DST), employs HDs (homozygous DNA deletions) as the targets of cancer therapy. "In contrast to other attributes of cancer cells, their HDs are immutable markers." "If the DST strategy can be implemented in a clinical setting, it may prove to be both curative and free of side effects."

Read more about Alexander Varshavsky:  Awards