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The science of EChO
- Giovanna Tinetti, James Y-K. Cho, Caitlin A. Griffith, Olivier Grasset, Lee Grenfell, Tristan Guillot, Tommi T. Koskinen, Julianne I. Moses, David Pinfield, Jonathan Tennyson, Marcell Tessenyi, Robin Wordsworth, Alan Aylward, Roy van Boekel, Angioletta Coradini, Therese Encrenaz, Ignas Snellen, Maria R. Zapatero-Osorio, Jeroen Bouwman, Vincent Coudé du Foresto, Mercedes Lopez-Morales, Ingo Mueller-Wodarg, Enric Pallé, Franck Selsis, Alessandro Sozzetti, Jean-Philippe Beaulieu, Thomas Henning, Michael Meyer, Giuseppina Micela, Ignasi Ribas, Daphne Stam, Mark Swain, Oliver Krause, Marc Ollivier, Emanuele Pace, Bruce Swinyard, Peter A.R. Ade, Nick Achilleos, Alberto Adriani, Craig B. Agnor, Cristina Afonso, Carlos Allende Prieto, Gaspar Bakos, Robert J. Barber, Michael Barlow, Peter Bernath, Bruno Bézard, Pascal Bordé, Linda R. Brown, Arnaud Cassan, Céline Cavarroc, Angela Ciaravella, Charles Cockell, Athéna Coustenis, Camilla Danielski, Leen Decin, Remco De Kok, Olivier Demangeon, Pieter Deroo, Peter Doel, Pierre Drossart, Leigh N. Fletcher, Matteo Focardi, Francois Forget, Steve Fossey, Pascal Fouqué, James Frith, Marina Galand, Patrick Gaulme, Jonay I. González Hernández, Davide Grassi, Matt J. Griffin, Ulrich Grözinger, Manuel Guedel, Pactrick Guio, Olivier Hainaut, Robert Hargreaves, Peter H. Hauschildt, Kevin Heng, David Heyrovsky, Ricardo Hueso, Pat Irwin, Lisa Kaltenegger, Patrick Kervella, David Kipping, Geza Kovacs, Antonino La Barbera, Helmut Lammer, Emmanuel Lellouch, Giuseppe Leto, Mercedes Lopez Morales, Miguel A. Lopez Valverde, Manuel Lopez-Puertas, Christophe Lovi, Antonio Maggio, Jean-Pierre Maillard, Jesus Maldonado Prado, Jean-Baptiste Marquette, Francisco J. Martin-Torres, Pierre Maxted, Steve Miller, Sergio Molinari, David Montes, Amaya Moro-Martin, Olivier Mousis, Napoléon Nguyen Tuong, Richard Nelson, Glenn S. Orton, Eric Pantin, Enzo Pascale, Stefano Pezzuto, Ennio Poretti, Raman Prinja, Loredana Prisinzano, Jean-Michel Réess, Ansgar Reiners, Benjamin Samuel, Jorge Sanz Forcada, Dimitar Sasselov, Giorgio Savini, Bruno Sicardy, Alan Smith, Lars Stixrude, Giovanni Strazzulla, Gautam Vasisht, Sandrine Vinatier, Serena Viti, Ingo Waldmann, Glenn J. White, Thomas Widemann, Roger Yelle, Yuk Yung, Sergey Yurchenko
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- Journal:
- Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union / Volume 6 / Issue S276 / October 2010
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 10 November 2011, pp. 359-370
- Print publication:
- October 2010
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The science of extra-solar planets is one of the most rapidly changing areas of astrophysics and since 1995 the number of planets known has increased by almost two orders of magnitude. A combination of ground-based surveys and dedicated space missions has resulted in 560-plus planets being detected, and over 1200 that await confirmation. NASA's Kepler mission has opened up the possibility of discovering Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around some of the 100,000 stars it is surveying during its 3 to 4-year lifetime. The new ESA's Gaia mission is expected to discover thousands of new planets around stars within 200 parsecs of the Sun. The key challenge now is moving on from discovery, important though that remains, to characterisation: what are these planets actually like, and why are they as they are?
In the past ten years, we have learned how to obtain the first spectra of exoplanets using transit transmission and emission spectroscopy. With the high stability of Spitzer, Hubble, and large ground-based telescopes the spectra of bright close-in massive planets can be obtained and species like water vapour, methane, carbon monoxide and dioxide have been detected. With transit science came the first tangible remote sensing of these planetary bodies and so one can start to extrapolate from what has been learnt from Solar System probes to what one might plan to learn about their faraway siblings. As we learn more about the atmospheres, surfaces and near-surfaces of these remote bodies, we will begin to build up a clearer picture of their construction, history and suitability for life.
The Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory, EChO, will be the first dedicated mission to investigate the physics and chemistry of Exoplanetary Atmospheres. By characterising spectroscopically more bodies in different environments we will take detailed planetology out of the Solar System and into the Galaxy as a whole.
EChO has now been selected by the European Space Agency to be assessed as one of four M3 mission candidates.
16 - TP53: A master gene in normal and tumor suppression
- Edited by Alan Wright, MRC Human Genetics Unit, Edinburgh, Nicholas Hastie, MRC Human Genetics Unit, Edinburgh
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- Book:
- Genes and Common Diseases
- Published online:
- 17 August 2009
- Print publication:
- 02 August 2007, pp 233-244
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Summary
Introduction
Since its discovery over 25 years ago, the TP53 gene is one of the “stars” of molecular cancer research. The p53 protein acts as an all-round regulator of many interconnected functions associated with cell cycle regulation, apoptosis, DNA repair, differentiation, senescence and development. Activation of p53 prevents DNA replication and cell proliferation when cells are subjected to stress that may perturb genetic or genomic integrity. Thus, TP53 acts as a “master suppressor gene” by exerting simultaneous, many-fingered control of several components of the molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis. Mutations in TP53 result in loss of these suppressor functions. In some instances, it has been suggested that mutations may also exert gain-of-function effects that may explain the persistence of p53 mutant protein in cancer cells. TP53 is emerging as an important target for improving cancer detection, prognosis and treatment. However, forms of mutant p53 differ from each other and this may affect cancer development in an organ, tissue and context-specific manner. Addressing this diversity is essential for developing cancer management strategies using p53 as a target.
Cancer progression is characterized by acquisition of multiple genetic and epigenetic alterations in genes involved in interrelated processes controlling cell cycle, apoptosis, differentiation, replicative senescence, cell motility and migratory capacity (Hanahan and Weinberg, 2000). There are many ways in which cells develop defects in these processes, often in a cell-type, tissue- and context-specific manner. However, a small number of genes are commonly altered in many different cancers, irrespective of their histology or site.
Metal ions as regulators of the conformation and function of the tumour suppressor protein p53: implications for carcinogenesis
- Catherine Méplan, Gerald Verhaegh, Marie-Jeanne Richard, Pierre Hainaut
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- Journal:
- Proceedings of the Nutrition Society / Volume 58 / Issue 3 / August 1999
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 28 February 2007, pp. 565-571
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The p53 protein is a multi-function nuclear factor that is activated in response to multiple forms of stress and controls the proliferation, survival, DNA repair and differentiation of cells exposed to potentially genotoxic DNA damage. Loss of p53 function by mutation is a frequent event in human cancer, and is thought to result in the capacity of cells to acquire and accumulate oncogenic mutations during the progression of neoplasia. The p53 protein is a metal-binding transcription factor that is inactivated by metal chelation and by oxidation in vitro. In intact cells, p53 protein activity is crucially dependent on the availability of Zn ions and is impaired by exposure to Cd, a metal which readily substitutes for Zn in a number of transcription factors. Inactivation by Cd suppresses the p53-dependent responses to DNA damage. Overall, these findings indicate that regulation by metals plays an important role in the control of p53, and that perturbation of this control may explain the carcinogenic potential of several metal compounds. Résumé La protéine p53 est un facteur nucléaire multi-fonctionnel qui est activé en réponse à de multiples formes de stress et qui contrôle la prolifération, la survie, la réparation de l’ADN et la différenciation de cellules exposées à des agents génotoxiques. La perte de la fonction de p53 par mutation est un évènement fréquent dans les cancers chez l’homme, et l’on considère que cette inactivation a pour conséquence de rendre la cellule susceptible d’accumuler rapidement des mutations oncogéniques au cours de la progression du cancer. La protéine p53 est un facteur de transcription qui lie les métaux et qui peut être inactivée in vitro par chélation des métaux ainsi que par oxydation. Dans des cellules en culture, l’activité biologique de la p53 dépend de la bio-disponibilité en Zn, et est altérée par l’exposition des cellules au Cd, un métal qui se substitue facilement au Zn dans nombre de facteurs de transcription Zn-dépendants. L’inactivation de p53 par le Cd inhibe les réponses p53-dépendantes suite à la formation de lésions de l’ADN. Globalement, ces données suggèrent que la régulation par les métaux joue un rôle important dans le contrôle de la p53, et que des perturbations de ce contrôle pourraient contribuer à expliquer le potentiel carcinogénique de certains composés métalliques.
Life Annuitization: Why and how Much?
- Donatien Hainaut, Pierre Devolder
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- Journal:
- ASTIN Bulletin: The Journal of the IAA / Volume 36 / Issue 2 / November 2006
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 17 April 2015, pp. 629-654
- Print publication:
- November 2006
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This paper addresses some of the problems a majority of retired individuals face: Why and in what proportion should they invest in a life annuity to maximize the utility of their future consumption or a bequest? The market considered in this work is made up of three assets: a life annuity, a risky asset and a cash account. As this problem doesn’t accept any suitable explicit solution, it is numerically solved by the Markov Chain approximation developed by Kushner and Dupuis. Without a bequest motive, we observe that the optimal planning of consumption is divided into two periods and that optimal asset allocation should include the risky asset. Next, the influence of a bequest on consumption and investment pattern is developed. We demonstrate that even with a bequest motive, pensioners should allocate a part of their wealth to the purchase of life annuities.