You may have heard of cancer immunotherapies. But what are they and how do they work? Learn how a T cell is able to recognize the difference between our own healthy tissues and foreign things that need to be destroyed, like cells infected by bacteria or viruses. Immunotherapies are designed to help T cells find…
What are the RASopathies?
Did you know that cells talk to each other? It turns out their secret language is the key to our development, and is also implicated in cancer and rare diseases called RASopathies. Find out what the RASopathies are and how research for these rare diseases could help cancer patients! This video was produced in collaboration…
Progress and Promise of Stem Cell Research: Breast Cancer
Did you know that cancer cells have an invisibility cloak that prevents them from being recognized by the immune system? Scientists are making cancer cells vulnerable to the immune system by removing the cells’ invisibility cloak!! This is what our newest video in the series Progress and Promise of Stem Cell Research is all about!!…
Right on Target: Precision Medicine to Treat Rare Tumors
Precision medicine is the practice of using a cancer cell’s DNA to guide therapy. Learn how scientists have used precision medicine to treat rare brain tumors. This video was produced in collaboration with Malak Abed and her team in Boston.
The Key to Chromosome Immortality
In the 1980s, scientists knew that DNA polymerase could not copy the ends of chromosomes, yet chromosome ends were still largely maintained in an organism. Additionally, they observed that the ends of chromosomes consists of highly repetitive sequences they called telomeres. Blackburn and her colleagues hypothesized that the cell must have a mechanism to add…
Keeping Score: A new way to identify winners and losers in tumor genetics
Did you know that cancer cells choose to improperly repair their DNA when it is damaged? But WHY? Learn about the development of the RPS score that determines whether a tumor is repairing its DNA reliably or improperly and what this means for breast and lung cancer treatment and prognosis. Original article
Our Genome in a Circle
Advanced genetics topic: Learn a new way of visualizing complex genetic patterns using Circos. Thanks to this method, it is easy to compare patterns of genomic changes in health and disease to decipher clues such as driver mutations in cancer development. This video was produced in collaboration with SeventyK.
Colon Cancer: Signed, Sealed, Resected
Discovering the genetic clues within colorectal cancers. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths. It can be lethal if the tumors come back after surgery, which we call relapse. Scientists have looked at the tumor DNA to discover clues that can predict the likelihood of colorectal cancer relapse after surgery. Find out…
Liver Cancer Gets a Gut Check
Obesity promotes liver cancer development through the gut microbiome. New research is bridging the fields of gut microbiome, cancer, and obesity. Scientists have discovered that obesity promotes liver cancer development by acting through the gut microbiome. Find out how by watching the video. Original Article: Yoshimoto et al. Obesity-induced gut microbial metabolite promotes liver cancer…
Shedding Light on the DNA’s Dark Matter
What explains 74% of skin cancers. Scientists are beginning to discover what is hidden in 99% of our DNA. And it turns out this new information may redefine the way we think of cancer development. These scientists have discovered an important role for a protein involved in extending lifespan of mice and cells in driving…