IUPUI scientists report first 3-D view of anti-cancer agent

The image shows bleomycin represented in a space-filling rendering bound to DNA, in a gray ball-and-stick rendering. The color scheme highlights the different moieties that make up bleomycin: blue, bithiazole;... Click here for more information.

INDIANAPOLIS – Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Purdue School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis have created the first three-dimensional image of how a well-established chemotherapy agent targets and binds to DNA. The study, which publishes online the week of March 17 in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may help scientists develop better chemotherapy drugs to treat a wide range of cancers.

Using X-ray crystallography, the scientists produced the first 3-D molecular level images of bleomycin bound to DNA. X-ray crystallography is a widely used analytical technique in which X-rays are directed through crystals and results are deduced from the pattern of diffraction of the X-rays.