It’s called MBB in the course catalog and “molly-bye” by the graduate students and faculty who work there.

The Molecular Biology Building houses the departments of biochemistry, biophysics, zoology and genetics. It also houses the offices of several interdepartmental programs in the biological sciences.

Diana Walker is one of the graduate students who works in MBB. A Ph. D. student in the Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB) Program, Walker is studying proteins that are involved in regulation of cell division in fruit fly development.

Walker works in the laboratory of Kristen Johansen, professor of zoology and genetics. She is trying to isolate a gene called 2AB3 which she thinks is important in mitotic spindle assembly formation, an important step in cell division. The results of her research may take scientists one step closer to understanding the signals that go into changing the architecture, or structure, of the cell nucleus during the cell cycle.

“When you think logistically about what is going on in the cell, it is quite a feat,” she said. “I think most people tend to think about it as just a bunch of liquid floating around, instead of that this is actually 3-D solid-state stuff that needs to be moved.”

She said she hopes her work will help scientists better understand the basic mechanisms involved with cell division and cell cycle regulation.

“This might help us understand, for example, things like cancer,” Walker said. “The more we know about the details of the cell cycle and the structural makeup of the cell, the more we will be able to understand the disease state.”

On the other side of MBB, Tara Baker, a Ph. D. student in zoology and genetics, and John Stickney, a Ph. D. student in biochemistry and biophysics, are exploring proteins involved in the growth and regulation of cells in the laboratory of Dr. Jan Buss, professor of biochemistry and biophysics.

Stickney is looking at how proteins in cells are modified by a type of lipid, or fat, called an isoprenoid. This protein modification is thought to be important in the growth and regulation of cells.

Proteins that use these fatty modifications are also thought to play a role in immune function, Stickney said.

Baker is trying to find a way to inactivate a particular protein, called ras, thought to be involved in some cancers.

She is trying to inactivate the molecule through the addition and removal of fatty substances from the protein that regulates its function. She has found that nitric oxide, a natural substance made in the body, has an effect on the ras protein.

“Seventy percent of all human cancers are caused by the ras protein that’s been mutated,” said Baker. “It is always turned on and it is telling the cell to grow. If you can turn off that one protein, then you can stop the cancer, or the excessive growth.”

Baker said nitric oxide is used in the immune system to help fight bacterial infection. It is also thought to be used in the brain in signaling from one brain cell to another.