<h2 class="p" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;">
	<span class="CTXempty" style="margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit !important;">A team of&nbsp;<span id="link0" name="link0" style="margin: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px !important; padding-left: 0px; height: auto; cursor: pointer; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 153, 0); text-decoration: underline !important; color: rgb(0, 153, 0) !important;">Irish</span>&nbsp;scientists has made a major breakthrough in understanding the most common forms of cancer in very young children.</span></h2>
<div>
	<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;">
		<span class="CTXempty" style="margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit !important;">The group from Trinity College Dublin identified that the CHD5 gene is &quot;deleted&quot; in children with the worst form of neuroblastoma.</span></p>
	<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;">
		<span class="CTXempty" style="margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit !important;">Neuroblastoma is the most common cancer in children aged under two years and attacks special nerve cells, known as neuroblasts, which are found throughout the body.</span></p>
	<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;">
		<span class="CTXempty" style="margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit !important;">Normally these immature cells grow into functioning nerve cells, but in children with neuroblastoma they fail to mature and become cancer cells instead.</span></p>
	<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;">
		<span class="CTXempty" style="margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit !important;">The scientists at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity College explored the function of the CHD5 gene and found that, without the gene, neuroblasts are incapable of growing into mature nerve cells.</span></p>
	<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;">
		<span class="CTXempty" style="margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit !important;">The team plans to continue its research in the hope of creating new treatments for children with this form of cancer.</span></p>
	<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;">
		<span class="CTXempty" style="margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit !important;">Dr Adrian Bracken, lead scientist on the research project, said: &quot;Understanding the role of genes whose deletion or inactivation is associated with disease is central to designing intelligent therapeutic strategies.</span></p>
	<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;">
		<span class="CTXempty" style="margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit !important;">&quot;Our work has unravelled the normal function of the CHD5 gene and suggests that its inactivation in neuroblastoma leads to an inability of these cells to correctly mature or differentiate,&quot; he explained.</span></p>
	<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;">
		<span class="CTXempty" style="margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit !important;">&quot;Our future work will assess the potential&nbsp;<a href="http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Benefit_(designer)" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1em; color: rgb(92, 139, 63); margin-bottom: 0px !important;">benefit</a>&nbsp;of reactivating CHD5 in neuroblastoma cells which usually retain one silenced copy of this gene.&quot;</span></p>
	<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;">
		<span class="CTXempty" style="margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit !important;"><a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irish-team-makes-major-breakthrough-on-childrens-cancer-29497104.html">http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irish-team-makes-major-breakthrough-on-childrens-cancer-29497104.html</a></span></p>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
