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p53

p53 is a safety switch. When DNA gets damaged, p53 builds up and switches on genes that stop the cell from dividing, or that make the cell self-destruct.

p53: its AlphaFold model, drawn in one colour — Picture, in one colour: AlphaFold DB model v6 for UniProt P04637, from Fold Commons' snapshot of 2026-10-22. A prediction, not an experiment.

See it in 3D

Fun fact

About half of all human cancers have a broken p53.

Words to know

dna
cell
tumor
gene

NGSS alignment

MS-LS3-1Structure & function of proteins
MS-LS1-2Inside the cell

Structure

Rendered in FoldLens Junior from AlphaFold Database entry P04637. See the underlying prediction at alphafold.ebi.ac.uk/entry/P04637.

For teachers and platforms

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