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Concept

p53

The image depicts a stylized representation of a virus with the text "P53" in the center, symbolizing the protein that monitors cellular damage and regulates cell division or apoptosis.

A protein that monitors a cell for damage and, if it finds too much, halts division or triggers the cell's own suicide. Often called the 'guardian of the genome', p53 is encoded by the TP53 gene and is mutated or disabled in roughly half of all human cancers. Inherited loss of one copy of TP53 causes Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a strikingly high lifetime cancer risk.

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