Campus Connection

Connecting the dots
(continued)

"With this technology, we can get a snapshot of everything happening within the cell and assess how all the proteins are interacting with one another," said Hawkes. "We get thousands of results at once, as opposed to one gene and one pathway."

The result, he hopes, will be a database of how nutrients interact with the human genome which brings Hawkes back to his original research.

"Why give people selenium, which is potentially toxic, when you might get the same effect using vitamins C and E?" Hawkes says. "We can't answer that now because we don't know how these nutrients interact with each other during cancer development."

With help from the UC Davis Cancer Center and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the answer may be in sight.

Evelyn Holguin draws blood from Danh Duong, a volunteer in Chris Hawkes' selenium study. Hawkes is studying the metabolic effects of selenium on 48 Davis men who are taking 300 milligrams of the trace element daily. Eventually, he hopes to use these measurements for studies of selenium and prostate cancer.