Acs Research - Theorylab

What does studying how cells communicate in round worms have to do with cancer in humans? In order for cancer cells to multiply indefinitely and metastasize to another part of the body, they have to communicate with each other. Understanding how they do that is critical to developing the next generation of cancer therapeutics. As American Cancer Society grantee Theadora Tolkin, PhD, puts it, “The signals that cancer cells use to communicate with one another are exactly the same signals that our healthy cells use every day to keep us alive and well. The difference between healthy communication and communication that leads to cancer, however, may have to do with the levels of signal sent or received. Sometimes, a cell becomes a cancer cell because it stops listening to the cells around it. Other times, cancer gets started when a cell thinks it hears a signal that’s not there.” In this conversation, Dr. Tolkin helps us understand the signal that she’s studying, called Notch, and how problems with Notch sign