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Tue 28 Sep, 2010 07:43 am
The word "blocks" means what?
A wooden block used in track and field, for example sprint to help get started?
Context
Researchers Create First Molecule-Blocks Key Component of Cancer Genes' on-Off Switch
ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2010) — In the quest to arrest the growth and spread of tumors, there have been many attempts to get cancer genes to ignore their internal instruction manual. In a new study, a team led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists has created the first molecule able to prevent cancer genes from "hearing" those instructions, stifling the cancer process at its root.
short-distance runner
@oristarA,
In this case, it sounds like a drug that blocks something.
Quote:Researchers Create First Molecule-Blocks Key Component of Cancer Genes' on-Off Switch
The hyphen is serving here as a relative pronoun and may be viewed as a substitute for the word "which". This is quite common in American newspaper headlines, less so in British ones. Read it as "Researchers Create First Molecule Which Blocks Key Component of Cancer Genes' on-Off Switch".
@oristarA,
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2010/09/24/researchers.create.first.molecule.blocks.key.component.cancer.genes.switch
Quote:In this study, Bradner's lab synthesized a molecule that has both effects: by blocking a specific abnormal protein in NUT midline carcinoma cells, it stops them from dividing so prolifically and makes them 'forget' they're cancer cells and start appearing more like normal cells.
In most of the online articles about this, there is no hyphen between molecule and blocking. It appears to have been added in some blogs.
Quote:"This research further illustrates the promise of personalized medicine," Bradner remarks, "which is the ability to deliver selected molecules to cancer-causing proteins to stop the cancer process while producing a minimum of residual side effects. The development of JQ1 or similar molecule into a drug may produce the first therapy specifically designed for patients with NMC."
~~~~~
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/blocker
block:
Quote:13. The act of obstructing.
14. Something that obstructs; an obstacle.
15.
a. Sports An act of bodily obstruction, as of a player or ball.
b. Football Legal interference with an opposing player to clear the path of the ball carrier.
16. Medicine Interruption or obstruction of a physiological function:
blocker:
Quote:blocker
n
1. a person or thing that acts as a block
2. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Physiology) Physiol an agent that blocks a physiological function, such as the transport of an ion across an ion channel
When I first looked at the quoted piece in the original post, my thought went to blocker as it's used in football.
@ehBeth,
ehBeth wrote:
In most of the online articles about this, there is no hyphen between molecule and blocking.
It's the headline, like I said.
Driver Abandons Truck-Blocks Freeway
Would you ask what "truck-blocks" are?
@contrex,
contrex wrote:
ehBeth wrote:
In most of the online articles about this, there is no hyphen between molecule and blocking.
It's the headline, like I said.
that's not quite true. In a couple of blogs, they've thrown in hyphens randomly between molecule and blocking. That is why I referred to articles, not headlines.
They didn't get your memo.
@ehBeth,
ehBeth wrote:
that's not quite true. In a couple of blogs, they've thrown in hyphens randomly between molecule and blocking.
But you didn't quote any. Anyhow, oristarA was asking specifically about the text that he quoted, and what you found by doing a web trawl is not really related to that.
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